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R  WINCHELL.  LL.D. 


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'^Ojf'H  l^AWOLINA      lAII    UNIVtRSilY  LIBRARIE 


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50M— 04S— Form  3 


THE  DOCTMNE  OF  EYOLUTIOK 


THE 


DOCTRINE  OF  EVOLUTION: 


ITS  DATA,  ITS  PRINCIPLES,  ITS  SPECULATIONS, 
AND  ITS  THEISTIC  BEARINGS, 


By  ALEXANDER  WINCHELL,  LL.D., 

fluanoellob  of  syeaottse  tjniversity,  author  of  "  8ket0ue3  of  creation," 

"geological  chart,"  reports  on  tue  geology  and 

puy8i0qbapi1y  of  micuigan,  etc.,  etc. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &   BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 


Entered  accordiug  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

HARPER    &   BROTHERS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


The  author  of  the  following  essay  regrets  to  give 
it  to  the  public  in  a  state  so  inadequately  representa- 
tive of  the  science  and  philosophy  which  have  con- 
tributed to  modern  discussions  on  the  subject  of  Evo- 
lution. Yielding,  however,  to  the  judgment  of  oth- 
ers, he  hopes  there  may  be  many  intelligent  readers 
who  will  receive  his  popular  exposition  of  the  theme 
as  gladly  as  those  who  have  already  become  ac- 
quainted with  it. 

As  will  be  at  once  discerned,  it  has  not  been  the 
author's  aim  either  to  defend  or  attack  the  doctrine, 
under  any  of  its  forms,  but  rather  candidly  to  exhibit 
to  the  inquirer  its  strongest  defenses  and  its  weakest 
points.  In  the  method  of  treatment  he  has  endeav- 
ored to  think  for  himself,  though  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  a  single  position  has  heretofore  been  omitted 
in  the  amplitude  of  the  discussions  on  this  question. 
The  favoring  arguments,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  have 
all  been  met  by  objectors,  and  the  objections  have  all 
been  handled  by  the  supporters  of  evolution.  Every 
one  must  have  noticed,  however,  that  the  "handling" 


118298 


8  PREFACE. 

of  an  adversary  is  not  necessarily  Lis  eviction  from  a 
strong  position  ;  and  so  we  iterate  "  objections  "  which 
have  been  a  hundred  times  "  answered." 

Should  the  reader  demand  categorically  whether 
the  author  holds  to  the  doctrine  of  evolution  or  not, 
he  replies,  that  this  seems  clearl}^  the  law  of  universal 
intelligence  under  which  complex  results  are  brought 
into  existence.  The  existence  and  universality  of  a 
law  operating  upon  materials  so  various,  and  under 
circumstances  so  diverse,  but  always  evolving  a  suc- 
.  cession  of  terms  having  the  same  values  relatively  to 
each  other,  is  a  fact  which,  to  the  ear  of  reason,  pro- 
claims intelligence  more  loudly  than  any  possible  ar- 
ray of  isolated  phenomena.  But  the  diversity  of  the 
materials  with  which  the  law  has  to  deal  brings  out 
a  variety  of  special  values  for  the  general  terms  of 
the  evolutionary  series.  Mechanical  fierce  acts  with 
uniformity,  sj'mmetry,  and  always  in  one  direction, 
producing  results  congeneric  with  itself;  hence,  in  the 
world  of  mechanical  force,  the  series  are  complete, 
calculable,  and  demonstrative.  Or,  if  we  penetrate 
to  the  rational  element  of  all  force,  intelligent  will, 
we  should  say  that  its  self-imposed  mode  of  activity 
in  the  mechanical  world  is  one  producing  series  which 
are  complete,  calculable,  demonstrative.  But  obvi- 
ously other  modes  of  activity  are  possible  and  proba- 
ble to  intelligent  will.     When  acting  in  the  organic, 


PREFACE.  9 

instead  of  the  meclianical  world,  thougli  conforming 
still  to  a  fundamental  law  of  evolution,  its  results  may 
not  present  series  which  shall  be  complete,  calculable, 
and  demonstrative,  but  incomplete,  contingent,  and 
suggestive.  Such  seems  to  be  the  character  of  the 
succession  of  animals  and  plants.  The  series,  as  an 
evolution,  lacks  its  first  terms,  and  numerous  inter- 
mediate terms;  it  presents  regressions;  it  yields  to 
the  demands  of  physical  correlations  and  ideal  con- 
cepts ;  it  betrays  everywhere  the  activity  of  a  force 
whose  law  is  not  that  which  dominates  in  the  mechan- 
ical world.  These  modes  of  force  take  precedence  of 
the  modes  producing  mere  physical  results.  The  vi- 
tal force  subordinates  chemistry  and  physics  to  ends 
beyond  their  compass.  The  intelligence  of  which  vi- 
tal force  is  a  function,  subordinates  even  physiolog- 
ical processes  to  the  attainment  of  premeditated  con- 
summations. Thus  the  lungs  of  the  tadpole  are  de- 
veloped while  it  is  yet  a  breather  of  water.  Thus  the 
perfect  man  is  developed  from  the  undistinguishablc 
ovum.  And  thus  it  is  possible  to  be  (though  we 
hold  that  it  is  not  yet  proven)  that  the  process  of  re- 
production, modified  to  suit  special  ends,  has  been 
employed  by  creative  intelligence  to  raise  organic 
tj^pes  to  their  present  status.  But  we  can  never  be- 
lieve that  these  results  have  been  attained  under  any 
law  but  the  supreme  law  of  free  intelligence.     Ko 


10  PEEFACE. 

evidence  can  be  stronger  than  that  "wbich  convinces 
us  that  every  effect  must  have  its  adequate  cause,  and 
that  conformity  to  method  and  correlation  of  means 
to  ends  imply  intelligence. 

Mr.  Spencer,  in  stating,  in  substance,  that  the  effi- 
cient cause  of  evolution  is  a  mode  of  the  Unknowa- 
ble, expresses  our  idea  exactly  in  relegating  this  ef- 
fect to  a  Power  without  the  sphere  of  sensible  things. 
But  we  differ  from  Mr.  Spencer,  toto  coelo^  in  respect 
to  his  dogma  of  the  Unknowable,  holding  that  the 
Causa  causarum  is  revealed  qualitatively  to  every 
rational  being.  The  cause  of  evolution  is,  therefore, 
a  mode  or  volition  of  the  incomprehensible  Mind. 

The  following  essay  was  originally  delivered,  in  the 
form  of  a  couple  of  lectures,  before  the  Drew  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  on  the  10th  and  15th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1873.  This  explains  why  we  have  appended  to 
a  scientific  discussion  an  inquiry  respecting  the  the- 
ological bearing  of  the  positions  of  the  disputants. 

The  Author. 

Syracuse  University^  February^  187-4. 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE  ESSAY. 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  THEME. 


A.  EVOLUTION  IN  THE  PHYSICAL  WORLD. 

I.  Facts  of  Co-existexce. 
11.  Facts  of  Succession. 
III.  The  Succession  of  Cosmical  States  an  Evolution. 

B.  EVOLUTION  IN  THE  ORGANIC  WORLD. 

I.  Facts  of  Co-existence. 

1.  Types  and  ArcLetypes. 

2.  Embryological  Data. 

3.  Facts  of  Intelligence  and  Instinct. 

4.  The  Variability  of  Specific  Forms. 

(1)  From  the  Physical  Environment. 

(2)  From  Cross-breeding. 

II.  Facts  of  Succession. 

1.  Geological  Succession  of  Organic  Types. 

(1)  Gradual  Advance  of  the  Series. 

(2)  Structural  Relationships  of  Successive  Forms. 

2.  Projihetic  and  Retrospective  Types. 

III.  An  Evolution  of  Ideas  Exists. 

IV.  Is  THERE  A  Genetic  Evolution  of  Organic  Types  ? 
1.  Theories  of  Development. 

(l)DeMaillet. 

(2)  Lamark,  Geoffroy  St.  Hilaire,  and  others. 

(3)  Darwin,  Wallace,  and  others. 


12  ANALYSIS  OF  THE   ESSAY. 

(4)  Author  of  "Vestiges." 

(5)  Hyatt  and  Cojie. 

(6)  Parsons,  Owcd,  Mivart,  aud  others. 

(7)  Conspectus  of  Theories. 

2.  Leading  Arguments  for  Genetic  Relationship. 

(1)  As  to  the  Fact  of  an  Evohitionary  Succession. 

(2)  As  to  the  Causes. 

(a)  Facts  favoring  Derivation. 

(&)  Facts  pointing  out  Physical  Influences. 

(c)  Considerations  suggesting  "  Natural  Selection." 

(d)  Facts  suggesting  Inherent  Tendencies. 

(e)  Prolonged  Embryonic  Development. 
(/)  Accelerated  Embryonic  Development. 
(g)  Occasional  Abnormal  Births. 

(h)  Partheno-genesis. 

3.  Prominent  Objections  to  the  Doctrine  of  Specific  Deri- 

vation. 
(1)  In  the  Field  of  the  Facts. 

(a)  No  actual  case  of  Derivation  known. 

(h)  Specific  Flexibility  exists  only  within  Limits. 

(c)  No  known  Sterility  between  Varieties  from  the 

same  Stock. 

(d)  Reply  to  the  Argument  that  more  Time  is  wanted, 
(aft,)  Testimony  of  Egyptian  Mummies. 

(bb)  The  Types  of  the  Age  of  Stone. 
(cc)  Fixity  of  Brute  Intelligence. 
{dd)  Testimony  of  Palseontology  to  the  Constancy 
of  Species. 

(e)  Breaks  in  the  Chain  of  Affinities  in  the  Actual 

World. 
(/)  Breaks  in  the  Geological  Succession. 

(aa)  Difficulties  at  the  beginning  of  the  Record. 

(hb)  Generalizations  of  Barrande. 
{g)  Reversals  of  the  Order  of  Succession. 


ANALYSIS   OF   THE   ESSAY.  1 


o 


(h)  The  Simi^lest  Types  of  Animals  still  exist, 
(i)  Changed  Conditious  cause  Destruction  or  Migra- 
tion. 
(2)  In  the  Field  of  the  Phj'siological  Forces. 

(a)  Physical  Influences  acting  against  Modifications. 
(&)  Similar  Influences  not  followed  by  similar  Results, 
(c)  Similar  Influences  followed  by  diflerent  Results. 
((Z)  Organic  Modifications  have  regard  to  Ideal  Con- 
cepts, 
(rtfl)  Diverse  Conformation  under  identical  Condi- 
tions. 
(hh)  Identical  Conformation  under  diverse  Condi- 
tions. 
(cc)  Rudimentary  Organs. 
(dd)  Comprehensive  Types. 
(e)  The   sudden  Acquisition  of  Organs  sometimes 
demanded. 

3.  In  the  Field  of  Abstract  Ideas. 

(a)  A  Physical  Cause  can  not  jiroduce  a  varying  Re- 
sult. 
(J))  Physical  Forces  act  in  Cycles,  not  progressively. 

(c)  Natural  Selection  as  a  Force  incongruous  with 

the  Results  ascribed  to  it. 

(d)  Natural  Selection  not  a  Cause,  but  a  Set  of  Con- 

ditions. 

(e)  Numbers  required  to  maintain  a  Variety  in  ex- 

istence. 

4.  Distribution  of  Objections  among  the  Theories. 

V.  Spontaneous  Gent:ration. 

1.  Does  not  follow  from  Establishment  of  Derivation  of 

Species. 

2.  The  Points  at  Issue  in  the  Controversy. 

3.  Important  Facts  established. 

4.  Archegenesis  can  not  ignore  a  non-physical  Force. 


14  ANALYSIS  OF  THE   ESSAY. 

VI.  Theistic  Bearings  of  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution. 

1.  Misconcexitions. 

2.  Evolution  in  the  Physical  "World. 

(1)  Science  does  not  lead  to  a  Rational  hegiuuiDg. 

(2)  What  is  Physical  Force  ? 

3.  Evolution  in  the  Organic  World ; 

(1)  Teaching  of  the  Historical  Unity  of  Phenomena. 

(2)  If  Specific  Derivation  be  proven,  then, 

(a)  The  fact  of  an  Intelligible  Harmony  will  remain. 
(&)  It  will  be  futile  to  contend  against  the  Proofs. 

(aa)  Mistaken  Methods. 

(hb)  Irrefragable  Basis  of  certain  Religious  Prop- 
ositions, 
(c)  Creation  Mediate,  and  not  Immediate. 

(3)  What  follows  from  Archegenesis  ? 

(4)  Testimony  of  Theological  Authorities:  Moses,  the 

Fathers,  Modern  Writers. 

(5)  Testimony  of  Evolutionists. — Conclusions. 


EVOLUTION, 


AND   ITS 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM. 


EvoLUTiox,  in  the  language  of  Spencer,  is  tlie 
transformation  of  the  homogeneous,  through  succes- 
sive differentiations,  into  the  heterogeneous.*  The 
type  of  the  process  is  the  development  of  the  embrj'o 
within  the  egg]  but  it  is  supposed  to  be  exemplified 
in  all  progress,  whether  in  the  development  of  the 
earth,  or  of  life  upon  the  earth,  or  in  the  gro^Yth  of 
society,  government,  manuflictures,  commerce,  lan- 
guage, literature,  science,  or  art.  Evolution  is  thus 
a  mode  of  succession  of  phenomena — a  law  of  se- 
quence. It  is  not  a  force,  but  a  plan  in  accordance 
with  which  force  acts.  "We  may  also  say,  it  is  the 
total  result  of  the  action  of  the  evolving;  force. 

No  one  can  recognize  the  steps  of  an  evolution 
without  recognizing  the  operation  of  some  force  act- 
ing upon  matter  and  producing  motion.     Evolution, 

*  Spencer :  First  Principles,  pp.  148,  140,  216,  etc. 

D.  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 
North  Caro'iria  State  College 


16  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

therefore,  implies  force.  Hence  the  question  which 
presents  itself  is  twofold:  1.  As  to  the  fad  of  such  a 
succession  of  phenomena  as  constitutes  an  evolution. 
2.  As  to  the  nature  and  mode  of  action  of  the/o?'ce 
causing  evolution.  The  first  question  is  to  be  settled 
by  a  collation  of  many  facts.  The  answer  must  be 
either  affirmative  or  negative.  The  second  question 
must  be  discussed  by  appeals  to  facts,  physical  and 
biological  principles,  and  metaphysics.  The  answers 
may  be  various,  as  they  have  been.  First,  the  evo- 
lutionary force  may  be  the  Divine  Will,  or  some  force 
of  matter  or  organization,  or  some  force  of  whose  na- 
ture nothing  can  be  predicated — a  mode  of  the  un- 
knowable. If  the  Divine  Will,  it  may  have  been  ex- 
erted initially,  and  then  withdrawn ;  or  it  may  have 
been  exerted  continuously.  If  a  force  of  matter  or 
of  organization,  it  remains  to  determine  which;  also, 
whether  the  force  be  simple  or  complex ;  also,  wheth- 
er it  be  inherent  or  extrinsic;  and,  finally,  whether  it 
be  ultimate  or  derivative. 

It  is  a  popular  assumption,  in  regard  to  the  doc- 
trine and  its  implications,  that  it  is  a  device  for  ex- 
plaining the  existence  of  phenomena  by  reference  to 
forces  whose  origin  is  not  traced  to  the  Divine  Mind. 
Its  tendency  is,  therefore,  supposed  to  be  atheistic. 
As  the  phenomena  of  evolution  are  alleged  to  em- 
brace the  mental  and  moral  class  as  well  as  the  phys- 


BEARING   UPOX  THEISM.  17 

ical ;  and  all  pliascs  of  the  evolutionary  force  are 
sometimes  alleged  to  be  equivalents  of  physical  force, 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  is  supposed  to  be  material- 
istic in  its  tendency. 

For  these  reasons,  it  is  important  to  correctly  un- 
derstand the  subject  in  its  data,  its  principles,  its  spec- 
ulations, and  its  theistic  bearings.  All  these  points 
we  shall  attempt  to  bring  forward  in  a  panoramic 
survey.  It  shall  be  an  impartial,  judicial  citation  of 
facts,  principles,  and  theories,  from  which  you  shall 
be  able  to  form  your  own  opinions  respecting  the 
fact  of  evolution,  and  the  theories  which  have  been 
promulgated  respecting  the  cause  of  evolution.  In 
dogmatism  and  denunciation  we  shall  not  deal.  If 
we  are  led  to  dissent  from  any  phase  of  opinion,  we 
shall  remember  that  it  has  been  defended  by  learned 
scientists,  profound  thinkers,  honest  hearts,  and  ear- 
nest lovers  of  the  truth;  and  we  shall  continue  to 
entertain  a  profound  and  sensitive  respect  for  the 
honest  opinions  of  every  man  laboring  to  enlarge  the 
sphere  of  human  knowledge. 

It  would  not  be  necessary,  even  if  time  permitted, 
to  survey  the  entire  field  of  phenomena  which  have 
been  supposed  to  fall  under  the  operation  of  the  law 
of  evolution.  The  facts  which  lie  before  us  in  the 
physical  and  organic  worlds  will  yield  us  adequate 
tests  of  the  nature  of  the  relationships  which  have 


18  EVOLUTION',  AND  ITS 

been  set  up  in  the  system  of  existence.  Cosmogony 
and  organization,  moreover,  have  been  the  fields  on 
which  the  doctrine  has  waged  its  principal  contests. 
We  shall  content  ourselves,  therefore,  with  a  discus- 
sion of  these  two  classes  of  facts. 


A -EVOLUTION  IN  THE  PHYSICAL  AVORLD. 

Common  familiarity  with  the  facts  embraced  under 
this  head  renders  it  appropriate  to  confine  ourselves 
to  very  condensed  statements.  We  shall  make  a 
hasty  reference  to  two  classes  of  facts  having  a  bear- 
ing on  the  question  of  evolution. 

I.  Facts  of  Co-existence. 

The  facts  of  co-existence  which  possess  a  bearing 
on  the  theory  of  evolution  are  such  as  sustain  rela- 
tions of  affinity  to  each  other,  and  suggest,  through 
their  common  likeness,  a  common  origin.  Thus,  the 
pebbles  and  sand  accumulating  along  a  sea-beach  are 
identical  in  character  and  associations  with  those 
found  in  a  railroad  excavation,  and  suorcrest  that  in- 
land  deposits  of  pebbles — even  those  which  have  been 
consolidated  into  rocky  beds — are  products  of  littoral 
origin.  The  trachytic  rocks  of  New  Mexico  and  Ari- 
zona are  so  extremely  similar  to  recent  lavas  erupted 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  19 

from  the  throats  of  volcanoes,  that  every  geologist 
feels  compelled  to  conclude  that  these  extensive  de- 
posits of  trachyte  are  also  of  volcanic  origin.  The 
evidences  of  deep  terrestrial  heat  revealed  in  volcanic 
eruptions  are  identical  with  the  revelations  of  thermal 
springs,  deep  mines,  and  artesian  borings;  and  all 
conspire  to  establish  the  conviction  that  such  heat 
exists;  and  all  these  thermal  indications  together  con- 
vince us  that  at  some  former  period  terrestrial  heat 
exerted  a  melting  agency  over  a  great  part  of  the 
earth's  surface.  Extending  our  observations. in  a  sim- 
ilar manner  to  the  aggregate  of  terrestrial  phenomena, 
of  the  class  denominated  geological,  and  we  find  them 
bearing  in  common,  and  so  legibly,  the  stamp  of  com- 
mon forces  and  common  modifications,  that  we  can 
not  forbear  the  conclusion  that  the  whole  physical 
aspect  of  the  world  has  been  wrought  out  as  a  single 
history.  The  conviction  is  equally  clear  that  the 
agencies  in  the  w^ork  have  been  physical ;  that  they 
have  operated  in  past  times  according  to  the  same 
methods  as  in  the  present,  and  that  the  forces  of  fire 
and  water  have  been  gifted,  in  succession,  with  an  in- 
tensity of  energy  which  has  not  been  witnessed  in 
historic  times. 

If  we  lift  our  eves  to  the  heavens,  we  behold  with- 
m  the  bounds  of  the  solar  svstem  more  that  one  hun- 
dred  and  fifty  bodies  executing  motions  around  com- 


20  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

mon  centres,  according  to  a  system  so  well  regulated 
that  a  collision  of  two  of  them  is  not  only  an  accident 
which  has  never  happened,  but  one  which  is  impos- 
sible to  happen.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate  the 
various  circumstances  of  forms  and  motions  to  render 
it  apparent,  to  persons  of  ordinary  intelligence,  that 
primaries,  secondaries,  and  asteroids  are  controlled  by 
one  set  of  forces,  and  subsist  under  one  physical  do- 
minion. 

All  that  we  have  learned  of  the  superficial  features 
of  the  moon  or  of  Mars — the  two  bodies  nearest  our 
earth — tends  to  exemplify  still  farther  the  analogies 
among  the  members  of  the  system,  and  confirm  our 
conviction  of  a  common  physical  government  over 
them.  The  sun  itself,  while  yielding  visible  obei- 
sance to  the  controlling  laws  of  form  and  motion, 
yields  to  the  questioning  of  the  spectroscope  unex- 
pected but  emphatic  testimony  to  a  material  consti- 
tution identical  with  that  of  our  earth,  and  differing 
only  in  temperature  and  the  conditions  which  de- 
pend upon  it. 

A  further  generalization  from  the  sum  of  phenom- 
ena manifested  in  the  solar  system  convinces  us  that 
its  various  members  are  characterized  by  no  essential 
differences,  except  such  as  result  from  differences  of 
existing  temperature.  It  appears  that  from  the  largest 
body  to  the  smallest  is  a  wide  and  graduated  range 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  21 

of  temperatures,  and  that  each  body  at  the  highest 
temperature  is  approximating,  through  radiation,  tlic 
temperature  of  some  smaller  and  cooler  body.  These 
inductive  conclusions  respecting  the  relations  of  heat 
in  the  solar  system  remind  ns  of  our  conclusion  re- 
specting the  former  thermal  condition  of  our  earth ; 
and,  combined  with  it,  and  other  evidences  which  we 
will  not  take  the  time  to  adduce,  go  far  toward  a  dem- 
onstration that  all  that  common  history  revealed  is 
nothing  more  than  the  record  of  a  process  of  cooling. 
If  we  raise  our  eyes  still  higher,  the  stellar  universe 
presents  us  wath  a  set  of  phenomena  which  greatly 
extends  the  analogies  of  our  system.  Uncultured 
opinion  pronounces  each  star  a  sun ;  but  the  eye  of 
science  discerns  profounder  reasons  for  regarding  each 
a  globe  of  vast  magnitude,  subsisting  at  a  temperature 
similar  in  intensit}^  to  that  of  our  solar  orb.  The 
very  contrasts  in  the  colors  of  the  stars  suggest  incan- 
descence of  different  deofrees  of  intensitv.  The  tele- 
scope  discerns  some  in  a  state  of  extraordinary  tcnu- 
it}^,  such  as  might  result  from  an  excessive  tempera- 
ture. It  also  brings  to  light  the  phenomena  of  orb- 
ital motions,  and  the  presence  of  those  forces  to  which 
orbital  motions  are  due.  In  the  next  place,  the  spec- 
troscope testifies  unequivocally  to  three  things  re- 
specting the  stars :  1.  That  their  physical  state  is  gen- 
erally that  of  an  incandescent  fog  or  gas  enveloping 


22  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

an  incandescent  liquid  or  solid  nucleus — thus  resem- 
bling the  sun  ;  2.  That  the  chemical  substances  which 
form  the  earth  and  sun  build  also  stars  and  nebulae; 
8.  That  the  different  stars  and  nebulae  subsist  at  dif- 
ferent temperatures.  These  are  wonderful  revela- 
tions, and  almost  inspire  us  with  a  belief  that  to  pos- 
sible knowledge  no  limits  have  been  set. 

Now,  when  we  consider  the  evidence  in  our  posses- 
sion, that  gravitation  acts  in  the  starry  realm  as  it  acts 
upon  the  earth,  and  that  gyrations  are  actually  in 
progress  among  the  stars  and  nebulse;  that  light  finds 
free  intercommunication  between  the  remotest  star 
and  the  earth,  and  thus  testifies  to  the  intervention  of 
a  common,  pulsating  ether;  and  that  the  stellar  bod- 
ies subsist  at  intensely  high  but  various  temperatures, 
we  can  not  exclude  the  further  belief  that  the  law  of 
radiation  is  also  operative  in  this  common  realm,  and 
that,  consequently,  the  process  of  cooling,  w^hich  in- 
duction points  out  in  the  solar  system,  extends  itself 
to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  firmament;  and  that,  in 
short,  throughout  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  visible 
creation,  we  witness  the  perpetual  escape  of  heat,  not 
only  into  the  interstellar  spaces,  but  also,  and  neces- 
sarily, into  the  unknown  spaces  beyond  the  bounds 
of  the  visible  system  of  matter. 

Here  is  an  impressive  and  sublime  generalization, 
the  proofs  of  which  compel  the  assent  of  modern  sci- 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  23 

ence,  and  out  of  wliicli  burst  forth  courses  of  reflec- 
tion which  carry  our  thoughts  in  many  directions. 
Eemembering,  however,  our  main  purpose,  we  shall 
confine  ourselves  to  a  brief  statement  of  the  great 
features  of  the  historical  panorama  which  is  spread 
before  us. 

11.  Facts  of  Succession. 

We  said  that  we  look  forth  upon  a  universe  in  a 
state  of  change.  The  changes  going  forward  are  me- 
thodical and  regulated.  They  tend  constantly  in  one 
direction.  We  have  no  scientific  ground  for  assum- 
ing that  the  direction  of  this  tendency  has  ever  been 
different,  nor  for  denying  that  the  movement  has  ex- 
tended back  into  the  past  so  far  that  each  portion  of 
cosmical  matter  has  existed  at  the  highest  tempera- 
ture of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  That  tempera- 
ture reduces  all  matter  to  the  state  of  an  incandescent 
mineral  fog,  or,  perhaps,  a  feebly  luminous  or  non- 
luminous  gas.  Science  does  not  answer  the  question 
of  the  higher  antecedents  of  matter,  nor  of  the  au- 
thorship of  those  energies  which  she  discovers  resi- 
dent in  it,  or,  at  least,  active  in  it. 

It  may  be  regarded  as  a  mere  hypothesis  which 
predicates  this  as  the  primordial  state  of  cosmical 
matter,  but  this,  at  least,  must  be  said :  1.  It  explains 
completely  and  beautifully  the  whole  mass  of  astro- 


2-i  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

nomical  and  geological  phenomena;  2.  There  is  no 
physical  objection  which  can  be  scientifically  urged 
against  it ;  3.  Nearly  all  scientific  men  are  in  accord 
in  sanctioning  it ;  4.  The  method  by  hypothesis  is 
one  of  the  logical  methods  for  the  discovery  of  truth. 
The  laws  of  Kepler  were  hypotheses  till  similarly 
tested  and  sustained ;  and  so  was  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion. In  fact,  w^e  may  assert  that  tentative  hypothe- 
ses are  the  usual  methods  of  physical  discovery.  It 
disproves  nothing  to  call  a  proposition  a  hypothe- 
sis ;  and  you  remain  quite  at  liberty  to  style  it  a  hy- 
pothesis after  it  has  reached  the  status  of  an  ac- 
cepted doctrine,  since,  like  many  other  physical  doc- 
trines, it  will  probably  never  admit  of  strict  demon- 
stration. 

Now,  if  every  astronomical  body  in  the  visible 
universe  is  in  a  progress  of  cooling,  it  is  necessarily 
undergoing  those  transformations  which  accompany 
cooling  processes  before  our  ej'es ;  and,  on  a  still 
grander  scale,  in  the  physical  aspects  of  the  moon  and 
our  sister  planets.  The  present  condition  of  our  world 
is  one  which  has  been  assumed  from  an  ancient  state 
of  igneous  vapor.  In  the  progress  of  its  cooling  it 
has  existed  in  an  infinitv  of  intermediate  states.  At 
one  time  it  was  a  fire  mist,  like  the  photosphere  of  the 
sun ;  then  it  was  a  globe  of  molten  liquid,  like  the 
probable  nucleus  of  the  sun ;  incipient  incrustation 


BEARING  UPON  THEISM.  25 

succeeded,  and,  perhaps,  at  the  same  time  or  even 
earlier,  solidification  began  at  the  centre ;  at  a  later 
period  it  was  enveloped  in  clouds  of  watery  vapor, 
and  rains  descended  to  fill  a  universal  ocean ;  then 
primitive  wrinkles  in  the  crust  emerged  in  continent- 
al germs.  As  cooling  and  shrinkage  continued,  the 
series  of  surface  oscillations  upraised  mountains,  de- 
veloped continental  germs  into  continents,  and  shaped, 
according  to  a  persistent  method,  the  long  foreshad- 
owed features  of  the  lands.  Some  of  these  past  stages 
of  terrestrial  life  are  pictured  to  human  eyes  in  the 
existing  conditions  of  other  planets. 

This  terrestrial  history  diverged  from  that  common 
history  which  involved  all  the  bodies  of  our  system 
in  a  common  mass  and  more  ancient  vicissitudes. 
The  process  of  planet  genesis,  through  successive  an- 
nulations,  w^e  need  not  describe.  The  annular  phase 
is  stereotyped  in  the  single  case  of  the  Saturnian  sys- 
tem ;  and  it  is  set  forth  in  the  aspects  of  annular  and 
spiral  nebulae  in  the  more  distant  realm  of  space. 
From  the  most  attenuated  vapor  to  the  habitable 
earth,  and  even  the  frozen  and  fossilized  moon,  all 
possible  stages  and  conditions  of  cooling  are  grandly 
held  forth  to  view  in  the  aspects  which  the  nightly 
firmament  presents  to  the  eye  of  science."^'" 

*  The  author  has  discussed  this  branch  of  the  subject  more  fully  in 
a  couple  of  papers  in  the  Methodist  Quarterlj  Review  for  April,  1873, 

2 
D.  H.  MILL  LIBRARY 


26  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

III.  The  Succession  of  Cosmic al  States  an 

Evolution. 

Is  sucli  a  succession  of  cosmical  states  an  evolu- 
tion ?  If  the  succession  and  the  successional  corre- 
lation are  such  as  we  have  indicated,  no  question  can 
arise.  It  is  an  evolution.  Our  confidence  in  this 
proposition  is  measured  only  by  our  confidence  in 
the  interpretations  which  science  has  put  upon  the 
body  of  telescopic,  spectroscopic,  and  geological  flicts. 
These  phenomena  are  connected  together  by  the  re- 
lation of  cause  and  effect.  The  so-called  forces  of 
matter  are  the  causes.  Condition  has  been  physically 
evolved  out  of  condition ;  and  the  conditions  of  to- 
day are  determining  the  changed  conditions  of  to- 
morrow. The  common  consent  of  scientists  renders 
these  conclusions  inevitable.  If  they  are  inevitable 
we  must  not  shrink  from  them.  It  is  probable  they 
represent  truth.     If  so,  it  is  God's   truth  ;   and  the 

and  January,  1874.  See,  also,  his  brochure,  entitled  "The  Geology 
of  the  Stars,"  Estes  &  Lauriat,  Boston,  1873.  It  is  greatly  to  be  re- 
gretted that  Dr.  Christlieb's  late  "Essay  on  Modem  Infidelity"  is 
marred  by  expressions  of  distrust  of  the  method  of  reasoning  from 
the  uniformity  of  nature,  and  thus  ascending  toward  a  beginning  of 
the  earth's  history  (p.  Gl).  "We  note  here,  also,  the  puerility  and  fu- 
tility and  detriment  to  theology  of  his  attempted  vindication  of  the 
Mosaic  cosmogony  (pp.  59-62).  In  other  respects  wc  regard  the 
Essay  a  master-work. 


BEARING   UPOX  THEISir.  27 

truth  of  God  it  is  man's  religious  duty  to  embrace. 
We  are  bound  to  admit  the  existence  of  a  method  of 
evolution  in  the  physical  world. 


B.-EVOLUTION  IN  THE  ORGANIC  WORLD. 

No  determined  opposition  is  likely  to  be  manifested 
to  the  doctrine  of  evolution  as  applied  to  the  ph3'sical 
world.  At  least,  no  such  opposition  is  likely  to  come 
from  well-read  thinkers.  We  do  not  say  it  is  impos- 
sible. It  is  within  the  domain  of  organic  nature  that 
the  modern  controversy  chiefly  exists;  and  from  the 
application  of  the  doctrine  here  that  the  most  serious 
consequences  are  expected  to  flow.  We  had  proposed 
to  devote  our  discussion  chiefly  to  this  aspect  of  the 
subject. 

In  pursuance  of  this  purpose,  we  shall  present,  first, 
a  conspectus  of  the  leading  facts  which  bear  upon  the 
question  of  the  derivative  origin  of  species;  then, 
havinsj  outlined  the  various  theories  which  have  been 
thrown  before  the  world,  we  shall  consider  the  lead- 
ing arguments  in  support  of  them,  and  proceed  to  a 
comprehensive  survey  of  the  scientific  difficulties  in 
wdiich  they  involve  lis.  Finallj^,  we  shall  inquire 
into  the  theistic  bearina's  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution, 
whether  as  applied  to  the  realm  of  inorganic  or  to 
that  of  organic  nature. 


28  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 


I.  Facts  of  Co-existence. 

In  glancing  about  us  for  the  discovery  of  facts 
which  may  have  a  bearing  on  the  question  of  the 
evolution  of  species,  the  phenomena  of  types  and 
archetypes  stand  forth  in  great  prominence.  These 
bind  groups  of  animals  or  plants  together  in  relation- 
ships of  profound  significance,  and  establish  such  kin- 
ship as  must  subsist  to  render  the  doctrine  probable, 
or  even  plausible.  We  find,  for  instance,  that  the 
whole  animal  kingdom  ranges  itself  under  four  cate- 
gories of  fundamental  structure.  Within  the  limits 
of  each  category,  myriads  of  animals  and  thousands 
of  species  are  knit  together  by  an  extended  and  pro- 
found system  of  affinities.  Every  vertebrated  animal 
resembles  qyqtj  other  vertebrated  animal  in  a  hun- 
dred-fold more  particulars  than  enter  into  its  resem- 
blance to  a  molluscous,  or  an  articulated,  or  a  radi- 
ated animal.  These  vertebrates  are  all  constructed 
on  a  particular  plan,  insomuch  that,  differ  as  they 
may — as  widely  as  a  fish  from  a  bird — we  find  limb 
answering  to  limb,  cranium  to  cranium,  bone  to  bone, 
and,  to  a  great  extent,  nerve  to  nerve,  and  muscle  to 
muscle.  "We  see  that  all  are  but  modifications  of  one ; 
or,  more  strictly,  that  all  are  modifications  of  an  ideal 
vertebrate  —  an  archetype — embodying  the  essential 
and  persistent  structures  of  all  individual  vertebrates. 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  29 

I 

In  the  next  place,  we  have  class  affinities,  like  tbose 
w'liicli  unite  the  mammals  in  one,  or  the  birds  in  one ; 
and  these  bring  individuals  into  a  closer  unity  than 
the  fundamental  characters.  Following  these  are  or- 
dinal, family,  and  generic  characters,  bringing  individ- 
uals into  successively  closer  relationships,  though  the 
size  of  the  groups,  as  a  rule,  is  successively  diminish- 
ed. It  is  this  state  of  the  facts  which  renders  a  clas- 
sification possible.  It  is  this  state  of  the  facts  which 
has  suggested  to  so  many  minds  the  possibility  of  a 
genetic  relationship  among  all  the  animals  of  a  single 
group.  Whatever  interpretation  we  put  upon  the 
phenomena  of  types  and  archetypes,  we  must  confess 
that  they  demonstrate  method,  correlation,  and,  con- 
sequently, intelligence. 

Another  group  of  flicts  worthy  of  prominent  con- 
sideration is  that  which  embraces  the  data  of  emhry- 
ology.  The  beetle,  to  a  casual  observer,  shows  little 
resemblance  to  the  earth-worm  ;  but  the  infant  beetle, 
which  is  a  grub,  exhibits  a  relationship  so  close  that 
the  uninitiated  regard  it  a  real  "  worm."  The  infant, 
or  embryo,  frog  is  the  fish-like  tadpole.  The  chick 
in  the  egg  assumes  in  succession  the  aspect  of  a  fish, 
a  snake,  a  bird  of  low  degree,  and,  finally,  the  simili- 
tude of  its  parent.  Even  man  possesses,  at  an  early 
period,  the  branchial  apertures  of  the  fish,  and  as- 
sumes in  succession  the  aspect  of  a  seal,  a  quadru- 


30  EYOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

ped,  a  monkey,  and  a  human  being.  These  embrj'on- 
ic  affinities  reach  out  to  animals  of  the  same  funda- 
mental type,  and  strengthen  the  induction  drawn 
from  corresponding  adult  structures  in  reference  to 
the  unity  which  reigns  in  what  are  known  as  natural 
groups  of  animals;  and  they  are  even  more  suggest- 
ive than  adult  affinities  of  genealogical  relationships 
among  the  species  of  a  group. 

The  common  instincts  and  the  common  intellectual 
fciculiies^  especially  of  the  higher  animals,  indicate 
close  relationships  between  them ;  while  the  wide 
disparity  which  subsists  between  the  mental  faculties 
of  man  and  the  brutes  next  below  him  stands  a  yawn- 
ing interval,  which  it  would  seem  difficult  for  any  de- 
velopmental process  to  overpass ;  and  the  contrast  of 
the  moral  natures  renders  the  chasm  still  broader  and 
deeper. 

The  facts  illustrating  the  variahility  of  species  have 
a  direct  bearing  upon  the  question  of  derivation.  A 
certain  amount  of  variability  is  a  matter  of  universal 
observation  ;  but  what  is  its  extreme  limit,  and  under 
what  influence  is  it  brought  about?  Two  causes  of 
specific  variation  have  presented  themselves  to  the 
notice  of  every  one.  The  first,  which  is  perhaps 
rather  an  occasion  than  a  cause,  is  the  j^^^ysical  envi- 
ronment of  the  individual.  Xo  one  doubts  that  cli- 
mate, food,  exposure,  and  other  material  conditions 


BEARING  UPON  THEISM.  31 

occasion  certain  adaptive  variations  in  the  color,  size, 
robustness,  covering,  or  even  the  form  of  the  animah 
Under  domestication  animals  and  plants  have  wan- 
dered from  their  native  types  to  such  extent  as  we 
see  exemplified  in  the  races  of  pigeons,  dogs,  roses, 
or  apples.  One  fact,  however,  needs  to  be  particular- 
ly noted.  Not  a  single  known  variation  has  extend- 
ed so  far  as  to  produce,  in  essential  respects,  a  new 
form  wdiich  naturalists  agree  to  regard  as  a  new  spe- 
cies. Variations  produced  spontaneously,  under  the 
influence  of  external  conditions,  so  flir  as  observation 
goes,  amount  to  no  more  than  varietal  forms.  Still 
more  certainly  do  the  confessedly  more  strongly- 
marked  variations  caused  bj  domestication  tend  to 
revert  to  the  original  type,  when  the  original  sur- 
roundings and  influences  are  restored.  These,  we 
saj^,  are  the  teachings  of  the  facts  observed;  and  in 
this  all  naturalists  and  theorists  are  ao^reed.  It  is,  of 
course,  admissible  to  suppose  that  the  long  continu- 
ance of  the  chanG^ed  conditions  would  ausrment  the 
variation  by  insensible  degrees,  and  create  insupera- 
ble obstacles  to  a  reversion  to  the  original  type,  ex- 
cept through  a  reversal  of  the  slowly  acting  outward 
conditions.  But  the  difficulties  of  such  a  position  are 
great,  as  will  be  shown. 

Variation  of  species  is  also  seen  to  be  produced  by 
cross-breeding.    The  sexual  intercourse  of  two  species 


32  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

generally  regarded  as  distinct  is  a  thing  of  rare  oc- 
currence. Nature  has  established  aversions  to  it 
which  are  difficult  to  overcome.  As  a  rule,  too,  such 
unions  are  unproductive.  When  otherwise,  we  ob- 
tain a  mule,  which  generally  bears  some  of  the  spe- 
cific characteristics  of  each  of  its  parents.  Were  it 
possible  to  perpetuate  these  characteristics,  we  should 
obtain  a  form  which  all  would  recognize  as  a  new 
species ;  but  this  is  not  possible.  Two  mules  result- 
ing from  the  cross  between  two  species  are  incapable 
of  continuing  their  like;  and  when  recourse  is  had  to 
an  individual  of  the  original  stock,  the  new  offspring 
manifests  a  tendency  to  revert  to  the  form  of  the  orig- 
inal stock.  Thus  the  hybrid  form  disappears.  Ex- 
perience and  observation  have,  therefore,  shown  that 
it  is  impossible  to  introduce  through  hybridism  a 
genuine  new  specific  form. 

II.  Facts  of  Succession. 

The  phenomena  presented  by  the  geological  succes- 
sion of  organic  types  are  interesting  in  themselves,  and 
on  account  of  their  supposed  bearing  on  the  question 
of  derivation.  The  first  fiict  which  impresses  us,  and 
one  on  which  all  evolutionists  have  rested  with  much 
stress,  is  the  methodical  graduation  of  the  chronolog- 
ical series  of  animal  and  vegetal  forms.  The  earliest 
animals  and  plants  were  comparatively  low  —  very 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  83 

'  low,  in  rank  ;  and  higher  types  have  been  introduced 
in  gradual  succession.  First,  supposing  Eozoon  to 
have  been  an  animal,  conscious  life  was  ushered  into 
existence  in  the  form  of  an  animated  jelly.  At  a 
subsequent  period,  higher  marine  animals  appeared, 
then  reptilian  air-breathers,  and  after  them  birds, 
quadrupeds,  monkeys,  and  men.  This  is  a  very  sug- 
gestive procession  of  organic  forms,  and  ought  to  af- 
ford a  most  valuable  lesson.  A  closer  scrutiny  of  it 
is  reserved  for  another  connection. 

The  next  great  fact  which  arrests  the  attention  of 
the  paleontologist  is  the  unmistakable  structural  re- 
lationsluj)  of  older  and  newer  forms.  We  have  more 
than  a  gradually  improving  series;  we  have  a  gradu- 
ally unfolding  plan.  The  four  fundamental  types  of 
structure  which  we  find  running^  through  the  existing: 
world  are  seen  to  extend  back  through  the  whole 
liistory  of  life  upon  our  planet.  When  the  verte- 
brate structure  first  appeared  in  the  skeleton  of  the 
fish,  in  that  remote  period  when  life  had  not  yet  been 
able  to  take  possession  of  land  and  atmosphere,  that 
skeleton,  simple  and  unpromising  as  it  was,  embodied 
all  the  conceptions  which  have  since  been  evoked 
into  reality  in  the  vertebrate  sub-kingdom.  Reptile, 
bird,  mammal,  and  man  existed  potentially  in  the 
primitive  fish.  Modifications  of  certain  bony  ele- 
ments have  wrought  out  each  type  in  an  admirable 

2* 


34  EYOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

succession,  and  in  the  order  of  progressive  derivation 
from  the  ichthjic  tj^pe.  The  pectoral  fin  of  the  fish 
became  the  fore  leg  of  the  saurian,  the  wing  of  the 
pterodactyl  and  then  of  the  bird,  the  fore  leg  of  the 
fleet  deer,  the  climbing  squirrel,  the  digging  mole, 
the  paddHng  whale,  the  prehenso-locomotive  arm  of 
the  monkey,  and  then  the  instrument  to  execute  the 
behests  of  the  intellect  of  man.  Similar  relationships 
of  plan  are  seen  running  through  the  W'hole  history 
of  articulates,  molkiscs,  and  radiates.  These  facts, 
so  compatible  with  theories  of  derivation,  are  strong- 
ly insisted  upon  by  the  defenders  of  those  theories. 

These  historical  affinities  are  brought  out  in  a  strong 
light  by  those  geological  types  known  as  prophetic,' 
retrospective,  and  comprehensive.  It  seems  to  have 
been  the  rule  that  some  important  features  of  a  new 
type  immediately  impending  in  the  future  should  be 
incorporated  by  anticipation  among  the  characteris- 
tics of  some  of  the  types  of  the  passing  period.  These 
are  prophetic  types.  The  class  of  reptiles  afforded 
some  striking  instances.  Before  ever  a  bird  had  ex- 
isted, the  idea  of  flying  vertebrates  was  expressed  in 
flying  reptiles.  Before  there  was  a  whale  or  other 
mammal,  the  flippers  and  forms  of  cetaceans  became 
the  prophetic  endowment  of  mesozoio  enaliosaurs. 
Paleontologists  cite  many  similar  cases.  But  equal- 
ly common  has  been  the  retention,  in  the  forms  of 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  35 

the  passing  age,  of  some  of  the  features  of  a  dominant 
type  of  the  preceding  age.  The  forms  wliicli  thus 
perpetuate  reminiscences  of  the  past  may  be  styled 
retrospective.  Of  this  kind  is  the  earliest  bird  (Ar- 
chceopieryx),  which,  emerging  from  the  age  and  associ- 
ations of  reptiles,  with  a  long  vertebrated  tail,  bilater- 
ally quilled,  seems  to  reveal  itself  with  the  characters 
of  reptiles  still  clinging  to  it.  Prophetic  and  retro- 
spective types  have  been  conceived  by  Professor 
Dana  as  incident  to  the  more  general  method  of  com- 
prehensive types.  A  premeditated  group  of  affilia- 
ted forms  was  usually  heralded  by  a  comprehensive 
form,  embodying  characters  of  higher  forms  not  yet 
existent,  together  with  characters  of  lower  forms  part- 
ly existent  and  partly  future.  In  the  progress  of 
time  the  composite  type  became  resolved :  separate 
species  or  genera,  representing  the  higher,  intermedi- 
ate, and  lower  forms.  This  view  seems  faithfully  to 
represent  the  usual  mode  of  succession  of  organic 
types;  and  it  appears,  consequently,  that  a  close 
scrutiny  reveals  a  series  of  partial  retrodradations  in 
the  resultantly  ascending  scale  of  beings. 

These  general  statements  might  be  illustrated  in 
great  detail,  but  the  information  is  readily  accessible 
to  every  reader. 


36  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

III.  An  Evolution  of  Ideas  at  least  Exists. 

It  is  believed,  and  generally  admitted,  that  no  re- 
flecting person  can  survey  the  phenomena  of  paleon- 
tological  history  without  being  impressed  by  the  con- 
viction that  the  succession  of  forms  is,  in  the  main, 
such  as  constitutes  a  method  of  evolution.  We  make 
no  reference  here  to  the  cause  of  this  evolution.  To 
assert  a  method  of  evolution  is  not  to  assert  a  method 
of  derivation.  "We  mean  that,  at  least,  this  succession 
of  forms  typifies  an  evolution  of  ideas.  The  conception 
of  the  vertebrate  archetype  existed  at  the  advent  of 
fish-life.  It  was  first  expressed  in  its  simplest  out- 
lines in  the  fish ;  then,  with  increased  complications 
and  differentiations,  in  the  reptile ;  then,  with  further 
differentiations,  successively  in  birds,  mammals,  and 
man.  The  successive  ideas  stand  in  the  relation  of 
an  evolution.  The  successive  forms  also  stand,  in 
the  main,  in  the  relation  of  an  evolution. 

lY.  Is  THERE  A  Genetic  Evolution  of  Organic 

Types  ? 

1.  TJieories  of  Development 

But  do  we  find  these  forms  sustaining  relations  to 
each  other  so  intimate,  that  it  appears  rational  to  sup- 
pose the  whole  line  has  come  into  existence  by  means 
of  genetic  processes  alone,  or  by  means  of  genetic 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  37 

processes  aided  or  controlled  by  other  influences? 
We  here  reach  the  great  question  of  the  age — great- 
er in  the  estimation  of  the  timid  than  it  is  in  the  e3'es 
of  the  independent  thinker.  Agassiz  and  others 
maintain  that  the  only  evolution  pictured  in  the  pan- 
orama of  life  is  one  of  ideas ;  and  that  each  succes- 
sive typical  form  has  assumed  independent  existence 
through  creative  energy,  prompted  by  an  all-compre- 
hending intelligence.  The  meaning  attached  to  the 
word  creation  by  this  naturalist,  and  by  most  others 
who  employ  it,  is,  origination  by  fiat,  and  with  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  suddenness.  Opposed  to  this  idea  is 
that  of  creation  in  accordance  with  natural  laws,  or 
the  derivation  of  one  organic  form  from  another 
through  some  inherent  or  imparted  tendency  to  va- 
riation, or  some  susceptibility  of  variation  under  ex- 
ternal influences. 

Among  modern  propounders  of  opinion  on  this 
subject,  De  Maillet*  attributed  the  successive  im- 
provements of  organic  forms  purely  to  the  influence 
of  external  circumstances.  The  world  having  been 
originally  covered  with  water,  the  later  emergence  of 
land  was  accompanied  by  the  occasional  transfer  of 
marine  creatures  to  the  land,  where  changed  condi- 
tions gradually  transformed  their  organs  into  others 

♦  De  Maillet :    Telliamed. 


88  EVOLUTIOX,  AND  ITS 

better  adapted  to  the  new  situation.  Lamarck*  elab- 
orated with  the  utmost  care,  and  with  profound  learn- 
ing, a  theory  of  transmutation  of  species,  which  main- 
tains that  external  conditions,  giving  direction  to  an 
inherent  tendency  to  improvement,  work  out  gradual 
variations  of  species,  resulting  in  the  ultimate  devel- 
opment of  new  species,  genera,  orders,  and  classes. 
Thus,  with  an  inherent  appetency  toward  a  more 
perfect  adaptation  to  the  external  circumstances,  an 
animal  under  the  necessity  of  obtaining  its  food  by 
browsing  from  the  foliage  of  trees,  would  finally, 
through  the  continued  effort  to  reach  its  food,  develop 
the  elongated  muzzle  of  the  elephant,  or  the  lengthen- 
ed neck  and  extensile  tongue  of  the  giraffe.  Theories 
like  those  of  Lamarck  and  De  Maillet  were  wholly  in- 
compatible with  the  conception  of  final  cause  as  en- 
dowing the  animal  with  organs  adapted  to  its  situa- 
tion ;  and  also  excluded,  necessarily,  the  generally 
accepted  doctrine  of  specific  creation  by  fiat. 

The  doctrine  of  the  transmutation  of  species,f  even 

*  Lamarck:  Philosophie  Zoologiqtie,  1809,  These  views  were  later 
maintained  by  Geoffroy  St,  Hilaire,  and  vigorously  opposed  by  George 
Guvier. 

t  Besides  the  authors  cited  in  the  text,  a  number  of  others,  wiiting 
before  Darwin,  either  explicitly  avowed  their  belief  in  the  doctrine  of 
derivation  of  species,  or  indulged  in  dreams  and  conjectures  on  the 
subject.     Among  these  may  be  m.entioned  Kant  (1790),  who,  in  §  79 


BEAIIIXG   UPON   THEISM.  89 

at  the  hands  of  such  vah'ant  defenders  as  Lamarck 
and  St.  liilaire,  never  succeeded  in  earning  a  large 
amount  of  acceptance.  Its  distinguished  and  con- 
vincing opponent  was  George  Cuvier,  the  preceptor 
of  the  distinguished  opponent  of  the  later  phase  of 
the  doctrine.  The  theory  of  the  transmutation  of 
species,  accordingly,  though  feebly  revived  from  time 
to  time,  was  held  in  very  general  disrepute  until  the 
appearance  of  the  memoirs  of  Darwin  and  Wallace,* 
in  1858,  in  which  these  two  distinguished  naturalists, 
laboring  on  opposite  sides  of  the  globe,  arrived  al- 
most simultaneously  at  the  same  conclusion.  Tbey 
suggested  that  the  struggle  for  existence  among  ani- 
mals and  plants,  by  causing  the  destruction  of  the 
feebler  forms  and  the  preservation  of  the  stronger 
and  higher,  might  probabl}-,  on  the  principle  of  the 
selection  of  the  most  perfect  individuals  to  breed 
from,  exert  an  improving  influence  on  a  specific  t3'pe, 


of  "Kritik  der  Urtheil.skvaft,"  speaks  pretty  clearly;  Erasmus  Dar- 
Avin  (1794),  Oken  (1802),  Herbert  (1822),  R.  E.  Grant  (182G),  Geof- 
froy  St.  Hilaire  (1830),  the  distinguished  advocate  of  Lamarckianism  ; 
Goethe  (1832),  C.  E.  Bar  (1834),  Treviranus  (1837),  Freke  (1841), 
Schleiden  (1843),  D'Omalius  d'llalloy  (1840),  Unger  (1852),  Naudin 
(18o2),  Schaafhausen  (1853),  Carus  (1853),  Lecoq  (1854),  Buchner 
(1855),  Baden  Powell  (1855). 

*  Journal  of  the  Linnean  Society^  London,  Zoology  (1858),  vol.  iii., 
p.  45.  The  views  of  Mr.  Wallace  were  foreshadowed  in  an  article 
in  the  Annals  and  Mag.  of  Nat.  Hist..,  in  September,  1855. 


40  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

which,  in  a  long  course  of  generations,  should  cause 
it  to  present  characters  which  naturalists  would  re- 
gard as  specifically  different.  These  learned  theorists 
have  subsequently  elaborated  their  theories  at  length, 
and  Darwinism  is  now  as  familiar  as  a  household 
word/^  It  is  Darwin's  opinion,  like  Lamarck's,  that 
man  has  not  been  an  exception  to  the  law  of  varia- 
tion ;  while  Wallace  maintains  that  on  the  appear- 
ance of  an  animal  endowed  with  mind,  the  forces  of 
nature,  instead  of  continuing  to  exert  their  wonted 
sway,  were  held  in  check  and  made  subservient  to 
the  demands  of  his  higher  nature. f 

Toe  hypothesis  of  derivation  by  natural  selection 
was  heartily  espoused  by  Dr.  Hooker,:}:  the  distin- 
guished English  botanist;  and  our  own  distinguished 
botanist,  Professor  Asa  Gray,§  gave  the  hypothesis  a 
cautious  adhesion  at  an  earlj^  period.  Professor  Hux- 
ley is  a  valiant  defender  of  Darwinism,  with  a  visible 

*  Danvin  :  The  Origin  of  Species  by  Means  of  Natural  Selection; 
The  Variation  of  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication,  2  vols. ; 
The  Descent  of  Man ;  The  Expression  of  the  Emotions  in  Man  and 
Animals.  Wallace :  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection. 
London  and  New  York,  1870,  p.  302. 

t  Wallace :  Natural  Selection,  p.  324. 

X  Hooker  :  Flora  of  Tasmania,  Introductory  Essay  ;  A?ner.  Jour. 
Science  [2],  xxix.,  pp.  1  and  305. 

§  Gray :  Amer.  Jour,  Science  [2],  xxix,,  p.  153.  See,  also,  his  later 
Address  before  the  Amer.  Assoc.  Adv.  of  Science,  Dubuque  Meeting. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  41 

tendency  to  heresy,  since  Lc  intimates  tbat  tlic  ad- 
vancing steps  must,  in  some  cases,  Lave  been  rather 
abrupt — a  result  for  wbicli  Darwinism  pure  and  sim- 
ple does  not  account.*  He  also  admits  the  full  force 
of  sundry  serious  objections  to  the  hypothesis. 

One  of  the  very  ablest  and  most  original  of  the  de- 
fenders of  the  theory  of  Darwin  is  Professor  IIaeckel,t 
of  the  University  of  Jena.  A  vast  body  of  facts  and 
comparisons,  interpreted  from  the  Darwinian  stand- 
point, is  presented  by  Gegenbaur,  in  his  celebrated 
works  upon  Comparative  Anatomy.:^     In  the  English 

*  Huxley:  Lay  Sermons  and  Addresses,  Amer.  edit.,  p.  312,  etc. 
Compare,  also,  papers  in  his  Critiques  and  Reviews,  1873. 

t  Haeckel,  Dr.  Ernst:  Natiirliche  Schopfungs-Geschichte.  Berlin, 
18G8:  Fourth  edit.,  1873.  The  theoretical  positions  of  this  author 
are  laid  down  with  an  audacious  degree  of  assurance ;  and  he  is 
sometimes  as  dogmatical  as  the  dogmatists  whom  he  takes  so  much 
pains  to  berate.  One  can  not  avoid  amazement  that  Darwinism  has 
never  been  opposed  by  a  writer  worthy  of  respectful  mention,  nor  de- 
fended by  one  who  is  not  worthy  of  it.  The  work  lacks  candor,  and 
is  garnished  with  an  affluence  of  ridicule  and  hard  names.  See,  also, 
Ilaeckel's  Generelle  Morphohgie,  2  Bde.     Berlin,  18GG. 

X  Gegenbaur,  Carl:  Untersuchungen  zur  Vergleichenden  Anatomie 
der  Wirbehhiere.  Also  the  very  recent  work,  Grundriss  der  Ver- 
gleichenden Anatomie.  Leipsic,  1874.  A  good  text -book  on  the 
subject.  Numerous  other  German  writers  have  recently  applied  the 
theory  of  evolution  to  discussions  in  anthropology,  biology,  ethics,  pol- 
itics, and  faith — as  Carneri,  Jaeger,  Seidlitz,  Spengcl,  Oscar  Schmidt, 
Strauss,  Yon  Hartmann,  etc. 


42  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 


language,  Dr.  Chapman,*  fullowing  in  the  footsteps  of 
Haeckel,  has  presented  a  forcible  array  of  pertinent 
facts  and  persuasive  suggestions. 

The  doctrine  called  Darwinism,  it  will  now  be  seen, 
is  not  co-extensive  in  its  meaning  w^ith  the  doctrine 
of  evolution,  nor  with  that  form  of  evolution  through 
external  influences  known  as  "  transmutation  of  spe- 
cies," or  Lamarckianism.  Darwinism  is  one  theory 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  forces  which  have  caused 
an  assumed  divergence  of  species  from  their  original 
forms.  It  assigns  the  principle  of  "natural  selec- 
tion," or  "survival  of  the  fittest,"  as  the  cause;  while 
other  speculators  assign  other  causes  of  an  assumed 
derivative  origin  of  species. 

There  is  a  group  of  theories,  differing  from  eacli 
other  bv  sli2;ht,  thougjh  essential,  shades  of  diver- 
gence,  which  agree  in  attributing  the  derivation  of 
species  to  some  phase  of  action  of  the  reproductive 
process.  The  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation  "  f 
suggests  that  an  exceptional  i^rolomjation  of  the  term 
of  embryonic  development  may  give  rise  to  a  form 
somewhat  in  advance  of  the  type  of  the  parents.  Mr. 
Alpheus  Hyatt,:]:  in  1867,  suggested  the  idea  that  an 

*  Chapman,  Dr.  Henry  C.  :  Evolution  of  Life.    Philadelphia,  1873. 

t  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation.  New  York,  18*5. 
Explanations:  a  sequel  to  the  same.     New  York,  1846. 

J  Hyatt:  Memoirs  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  I.,  part  ii,  (1867); 
Amer.  Naturalist,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  230-237  (June,  1870). 


BEARING   UrOX  THEISM.  43 

accelerated  cmbiyonic  development  would  probably 
result  in  tlic  production  of  improved  forms,  as  a  re- 
tarded developnient  would  give  rise  to  an  inferior 
form.  These  results  might  ensue  without  any  mate- 
rial departure  from  the  normal  tenor  of  development. 
Acceleration  or  retardation  of  development  would  be 
promoted  by  flivorable  or  unfavorable  external  condi- 
tions. Professor  Edward  Cope"'"^  soon  afterward  pro- 
mulo:ated  an  identical  theorv,  which,  in  several  elabo- 

O  oil 

rate  memoirs,  he  has  most  skillfully  worked  out. 

Professor  Theophilus  Parsons,f  in  July,  1860,  ad- 
vanced the  theory  that  ordinary  generation  might 
occasionally  result  in  the  production  of  a  form  ad- 
vanced by  the  whole  difference  between  two  species, 
beyond  the  status  of  its  parents.  Kew  species,  he 
supposed,  came  into  existence  by  means  of  occasional 
extraordinary  births.  A  theory  almost  identical  was  in- 
dependently propounded  by  Professor  Pichard  Owen,:}: 
in  1868 ;  and  it  is  also  the  theory  of  Galton.g  Pro- 
fessor A.  Kolliker,  II  of  Germany,  in  1861,  in  equal 

*  Cope  :  Transactions  Amer.  Phil.  So;.,  xiii.  (18u*.>)  ;  The  Ihjpoth- 
esis  of  Evolution,  in  Lippincott's  INIagazine  and  "University  Series," 
No.  4.     Also,  On  the  Origin  of  Genera. 

t  Parsons:  Amer.  Jour.  Science  [2],  xxx,,  p.  1. 

X  Owen  :  Anatomy  of  Vertebrates,  chap.  xl. ;  Amer.  Jour.  Science 
[2],  xlvii.,  p.  33. 

§  Galton  :   Hereditary  Genius.     An  inquiry  into  its  laws,  etc, 

II  KiJlliker:  Uehcr  die  Darwin  sche  SchOjfuni/sthcorie;  ein  Vor- 
trag.     Lcipsic,  18G4. 


44  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 


independence  of  Parsons,  conjectured,  in  antagonism 
to  the  theory  of  Darwin,  that  the  development  of  spe- 
cies is  conducted  through  the  normal  processes  of 
generation.  Professor  St.  George  Mivart,*  however, 
has  presented  this  view  with  the  greatest  degree  of 
fullness,  candor,  and  ability.  Finally,  "  partheno-gen- 
esis,"  so  called,  or  virginal  births,  has  been  advanced 
by  Ferris  as  an  adequate  explanation  of  the  essential 
phenomena  of  derivation. 

The  following  is  a  systematic  conspectus  of  the 
several  existing  theories  of  the  origin  of  species: 

Conspectus  of  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Species. 

Immediate  Creation  : 

In  single  pairs Popular  opinion. 

In  colonies Agassiz. 

Derivation  (Mediate  Creation)  : 

Thronsli  a  force,  -vNhicli  is  a  mode  of  the  Uuknow- ) 

"               '  V  Spencer. 

able ) 

Through  external  forces. 

Physical  surroundings  (Transmutation) De  Maiij.et. 

Conflicts  of  individuals,  or  "Natural  Selection." 

Embracing  the  mental  and  moral  nature. 

1  Darwin,  Haeckee, 
By  insensible  gradations  ( Vari-       _ 

\    Chapman,  Gegen- 

ative) ! 

J    BAUR,  etc. 


*  Mivart :    On  the  Genesis  of  Species ;  Amer.  edit.,  1871.     Also, 
Man  and  Apes;  Amer.  edit.,  187-4. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  45 

With  occasioual  leaps  (Saltativc) Huxley. 

Excluding  the  miud  and  body  of  man Wallace. 

Through  an  internal  force,  influenced  by  external  Condi- 
tions. 
Perpetual  effort  to  improvement  (Cona-  )  Lamarck,      St. 

tive-variative )     IIiLAiitE,  etc. 

Genetic  processes  exclusively  (FUiative). 

Prolonged  development  of  embryo  (Varia-  ) 

y  "Vestiges." 
tive-fiUatke) ) 

(  Hyatt  and 
Accelerated  development  ( Vanaiive-fdiaUve)  < 

Extraordinary  births  {Saltativc- )  Parsons,  Owen,  Kol- 

thaumogene f       liker,  Mivart. 

Partheno-geuesis  (Saltative-fiUativc) . . . .Ferris,  Kolliker. 

2.  Leading  Arguments  for  Genetic  Relationshij)  of  the 

Terms  of  the  Evolution, 

It  will  be  sufficiently  obvious  that  the  great  lead- 
ing facts  of  the  organic  world,  to  wliicli  brief  refer- 
ence Las  already  been  made,  must  be  the  chief  reli- 
ance of  those  who  maintain  that  the  paleontological 
succession  of  animals  is  in  the  order  of  a  true  evolu- 
tion, and  that  organisms  existing  to-day  are  the  last 
terms  of  a  series  which  extends  for  a  greater  or  less 
distance  into  the  po,st.  The  classes  of  facts  to  which 
appeal  is  made  in  support  of  the /ad  of  an  evolution 
are,  briefly:  1.  The  graduated  succession  of  organic 
forms  in  geological  history;  2.  The  graduated  rela- 
tionships of  animal  and  vegetal  types  in  the  existing 


46  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

world ;  8.  The  correspondence  of  this  gradation  with 
the  successive  phases  presented  by  embryos  in  the 
progress  of  their  evolution. 

As  to  the  causes  of  this  evolutionary  relationship 
of  organisms,  all  those  who  maintain  that  speciiic 
forms  are  derivative  find  countenance  for  their  behef 
in  the  admitted  fact  that,  while  species  are  generally 
true  to  their  lineage,  they  do  vary,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, so  as  to  give  rise  to  the  phenomena  of  races  and 
varieties.  If  the  variation  is  a  definable  amount  in 
brief  periods,  it  may  result  in  a  wide  divergence  in 
the  course  of  a  thousand  generations;  and  thus  the 
origui  of  new  specific  forms  become  referable  to  the 
action  of  those  forces  which  we  see  in  action  under 
ordinary  circumstances.  The  idea  of  derivation  of 
species,  the  one  from  the  other,  is  further  counte- 
nanced by  the  existence  of  typical  plans  of  structure 
running  through  the  history  of  extinct  forms  and 
throuo'h  the  world  of  livino^  ors^anisms. 

Those  who  maintain  that  the  evolution  proceeds 
from  the  influence  of  physical  conditions  make  appeal, 
1.  To  the  universal  and  admirable  correspondence 
which  we  witness  between  the  organs  of  animals  and 
plants  and  the  situations  in  which  they  live;  2.  To 
the  obvious  and  undisputed  modifications  produced 
in  individuals  and  even  races  under  the  influence  of 
climate,  food,  and  physical  circumstances;  3.  The  ex- 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  47 

treme  variations  often  witnessed  in  domesticated  ani- 
mals subjected  to  artificial  food,  lodgings,  and  treat- 
ment. 

Darwinism,  so  called,  wliile  holding  to  the  sufTi- 
ciency  of  external  influences  to  account  for  tlie  deri- 
vation of  species,  relies  rather  upon  the  conflicts  of 
individual  with  individual  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, the  result  of  which  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
The  consequent  slow  deviation  of  the  specific  form  is, 
therefore,  the  resultant  effect  of  all  the  physical  forces 
brought  into  play  in  the  prosecution  of  the  struggle. 
It  is  not  the  direct  impression  of  physical  influences 
upon  the  organism ;  it  is  not  an  innate  active  impul- 
sion to  deviation,  but  a  sort  of  residual  effect.  Dar- 
winism as  holding,  1.  To  the  fact  of  an  evolutionary 
relationship  of  organic  phenomena;  2.  To  the  deriv- 
ative character  of  each  term,  of  the  series,  must  appeal 
primarily,  as  it  does,  to  the  same  classes  of  facts,  as 
we  have  already  instanced.  It  appeals  further,  as  a 
distinctive  theorj-^,  1.  To  the  well-known  laws  of  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  individuals  of  a  species;  2. 
To  the  consequent  and  undoubted  rivalry  between 
them,  tending  to  the  destruction  of  those  least  fitted 
to  survive ;  3.  To  the  assumed  probability  that  hy- 
bridism, or  cross-breeding,  would  occasionally  give  rise 
to  forms  better  suited  than  cither  of  the  parents  to 
the  surrounding  conditions,  and  therefore  more  like- 


48  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

]y  to  survive  than  other  forms  which  adhere  to  the 
specific  tj'pe;  4.  To  a  certain  amount  of  improvement 
of  the  species  resulting  from  the  natural  selection  of 
the  best  to  perpetuate  it ;  5.  The  hypothesis  that  this 
variative  improvement  is  capable  of  being  continued 
indefinitely;  6.  To  the  phenomena  of  affiliated  forms 
and  fundamental  plans  of  structure  in  the  existing 
world  and  in  the  geological  record,  as  evidence  that 
the  variative  improvement  has  been  carried  on  to  an 
indefinite  extent. 

Here,  it  will  be  seen,  are  two  hypotheses  or  as- 
sumptions incorporated  into  a  body  of  sound  facts: 
1.  That  improved  self-perpetuating  types  may  result 
from  hybrid  connections;  2.  That  the  graduated  re- 
lationships of  animals  and  plants  in  time  and  space 
are  genetic.  This  is  the  very  thing,  and  the  only 
thing,  which  the  theory  is  called  upon  to  prove.  To 
this  and  other  difficulties  we  shall  return.^ 

Those  who  maintain  that  the  evolution  of  species 

*  Haeckel  summarizes  the  inductive  evidences  of  Darwinism  as  fol- 
lows :  1.  The  Paleontological  series  (Phylogeny) ;  2.  Embryological 
development  of  the  individual  (Ontogeny) ;  3.  The  correspondence  in 
the  terms  of  these  two  series ;  4.  Comparative  Anatomy  (Typical  forms 
and  structures) ;  5.  Correspondence  between  comparative  anatomy  and 
ontogeny ;  6.  Rudimentaiy  organs  (Dysteleology)  ;  7.  The  natural  sys- 
tem of  organisms  (classification)  ;  8.  Geographical  distribution  (Cho- 
rology)  ;  9.  Adaptation  to  the  environment  (Oncology)  ;  10.  The  unity 
of  biological  phenomena  (Naturl.  SchOpfungsgesch. ,  pp.  G-t3-5). 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM:.  49 

is  caused  wholly  or  partly  by  an  iiilicreiit  tendency  to 
improvement,  or  appetency  to  conform  to  the  sur- 
rounding conditions,  regard  this  hypothesis  favored  by 
the  mutual  relations  between  the  organs  of  animals 
and  their  environment,  and  the  probability  that  when 
the  outward  conditions  become  less  favorable,  beings 
in  which  we  discover  so  many  provisions  for  their 
best  welfare  would  be  provided  with  a  tendency  to- 
ward organic  changes  corresponding  to  the  changes 
in  external  conditions. 

The  Lamarckian  theory  of  inherent  appetency  is 
little  insisted  on  at  the  present  day,  and  unmodified 
Darwinism,  it  may  be  added,  has  fallen  into  a  wide- 
spread disrepute.  Neither  Huxley,  nor  Parsons,  nor 
Mivart,  nor  even  Wallace,  one  of  its  original  pro- 
pounders,  accepts  the  doctrine  in  its  integrity;  while 
they  all  maintain  that  the  principle  of  natural  selec- 
tion is  a  true  conditioning^  cause  of  a  certain  amount 
of  variation ;  or,  at  least,  a  means  of  preserving  in 
existence  an  improved  form,  when  making  its  appear- 
ance through  any  cause  whatever.  The  most  popu- 
lar and  plausible  views  respecting  tlie  efficient  cause 
of  specific  derivation  are  certain  phases  of  the  belief 
in  the  sufficiency  of  natural  generation  for  the  pur- 
pose. That  is,  assuming  the  fact  of  a  derivative  ori- 
gin of  species,  the  derivation  of  species  from  species 
is  not  the  result  of  the  impression  made  by  the  envi- 

3 


50  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

ronment  of  tlie  organisnij  nor  the  result  of  the  strug- 
gles between  weaker  and  stronger ;  nor  the  effect  of 
an  inherent  tendency  to  change  to  perfect  the  adapta- 
tions of  the  organism,  but  the  result  of  extraordinary 
incidents  of  the  process  of  generative  reproduction. 
These  views  receive  countenance  in  the  fact  that  the 
successive  stages  of  embryonic  development  of  higher 
animals  represent  the  adult  stages  of  lower  animals, 
showing  that  the  serial  relation  is  a  developmental 
one,  and  also  a  relation  of  generative  development. 

The  theory  that  a  prolongation  of  the  period  of  em- 
brj^onic  development  may  lead  to  more  highly  per- 
fected forms,  is  based  by  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges" 
on,  1.  The  fact  that  the  period  of  embryonic  develop- 
ment is  a  period  of  progress  from  lower  to  higher;  2. 
That  the  higher  animals  are  characterized,  as  a  rule, 
by  the  longest  periods  of  embryonic  development;  3. 
That  the  period  is  known  in  some  cases  to  become 
prolonged  beyond  the  norm  for  the  species.  These 
recognized  facts  are  supplemented  by  the  hypothesis 
that,  in  cases  of  prolonged  development,  the  rate  of 
development  is  as  rapid  as  in  cases  of  normal  dura- 
tion ;  for,  if  the  rate  fall  short  of  the  norm  in  as  great 
a  ratio  as  the  lengthening  of  the  term,  the  status 
reached  by  the  matured  embryo  would  be  no  more 
advanced,  notwithstanding  the  prolonged  develop- 
ment.    The  theory,  in  addition  to  this,  supposes  that 


OFF-C/ 


■'L,  iaLUlxiyfi 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM 

the  improvement  ■which  takes  place  after  birth  is  not 
diminished  in  amount  by  the  extraordinary  prenatal 
development. 

The  hypothesis  of  Hyatt  and  Cope  that  the  births 
of  superior  forms  are  the  result  of  an  accelerated, 
rather  than  a  prolonged  embr3'onic  development,  and 
that  an  acceleration  mav  be  effected  throuoh  the  influ- 
ence  of  improved  conditions  of  vitality,  is  grounded 
upon  such  facts  as  the  following:  1.  An  acceleration 
or  retardation  of  development,  either  with  or  without 
an  alteration  of  the  period,  is  known  to  take  place 
under  circumstances  of  the  kind  alleged;  as  in  the 
case  of  the  ova  and  tadpoles  of  frogs  and  other  ba- 
trachians,  in  which  the  rate  and  period  both  depend 
npon  temperature,  and,  in  the  case  of  tadpoles,  also 
upon  the  supply  of  food  ;  2.  Certain  other  batrachians 
— notably  Siredon  lichenoides'^ — under  seemingly  un- 
fiivorable  conditions  of  existence,  have  been  practi- 
cally arrested  in  their  development,  and  their  larvcs 
have  reached  a  kind  of  reproductive  maturity,  and 
have  been  described  as  adult  forms,  while,  under 
changed,  and  probably  improved  conditions,  the  de- 
velopment of  other  specimens  has  been  continued, 
without  interruption,  to  a  conclusion  which  presents 

*  See  Professor  O.  C.  Marsli's  observations  in  American  Journal 
of  Science.     Also,  Tribune  Extra,  No.  8. 


62  EVOLUTION,  AXD   ITS 

an  adult  which,  without  a  knowledge  of  these  facts, 
would  be  taken,  not  only  for  a  distinct  species,  but 
for  a  distinct  o-enus,  family,  and  even  order.  This 
hypothesis  assumes  that  acceleration  and  retardation 
are  phenomena  so  general  as  to  impress  the  whole  of 
organic  nature.  It  also  assumes,  as  an  implication, 
that  there  is  no  specific  limit  beyond  which  such  em- 
bryonic variations  can  not  pass,  or  to  which,  if  they 
do  pass  it,  there  is  no  tendency  in  the  offspring  to  re- 
vert. That  is,  it  denies  all  constancy  in  species,  and 
asserts  that  every  species  is  liable  to  slight,  continued, 
unrestrained,  and  irremediable  fluctuations  throusfh 
the  accident  of  accelerated  or  retarded  development. 

The  idea  suggested  by  Parsons,  and,  independentU^, 
by  Owen,  and  adopted  by  Mivart,  that  the  derivative 
origin  of  species  comes  through  occasional  abnormal 
births,  rests,  as  a  specialty,  chiefly  on  the  known  oc- 
currence of  such  births,  and  the  occasional  hereditary 
transmission  of  their  characteristics,  especially  in  the 
state  of  domestication.  The  theory  assumes  that  this 
cause  of  variation  works  out  its  results  by  percepti- 
ble rather  than  imperceptible  steps ;  and  that,  conse- 
quently, each  specific  form  remains,  as  a  rule,  con- 
stant It  depends  upon  the  influence  of  natural  se- 
lection to  preserve  in  existence  such  extraordinary 
births  as  possess  improved  fitness  to  survive.  Its 
most  vulnerable  point  is  the  assumption  that  extraor- 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  53 

dinary  births  are  so  frequent  and  general,  and  their 
peculiarities  so  transmissible,  as  to  alter  by  degrees 
the  whole  aspect  of  the  organic  world. 

The  suggestion  by  Ferris  and  Kcilliker  that  the 
phenomena  of  so-called  "partheno-genesis"  afibrd  ex- 
amples of  a  kind  of  specific  derivation  which  may 
have  been  sufficiently  common  and  general  to  im- 
press and  mould  the  whole  aspect  of  organic  nature, 
rests  upon  the  fatal  mistake  of  regarding  as  adults 
certain  extraordinary  larval  forms — like  the  inter- 
mediate stages  (misnamed  "generations")  of  Cercaria 
and  certain  Aphides.  The  idea  of  partheno-genesis  is 
a  contempt  of  the  universal  law  of  life;  and  the  as- 
sumed facts  are  not  facts,  since  the  succession  of  forms 
returns  in  all  cases  to  an  original  form,  which  is  the 
only  one  to  which  genesis  can  be  ascribed. 

3.  Prominent  Objections  to  Theories  of  S2)ecific 

Derivation. 

(1.)  In  the  Field  of  the  Facts. — It  becomes  our  next 
duty,  whether  favorably  or  unfavorably  impressed  by 
the  doctrine  of  specific  derivation,  to  examine  can- 
didly the  difficulties  which  it  encounters  both  in  the 
field  of  the  facts  and  in  the  field  of  physiological 
force.  The  great  stubborn  fact  which  every  form  of 
the  theory  encounters  at  the  very  outset,  is  that,  not- 
withstandinoj  variations,  we  are  io^norant  of  a  sinf^^le 


54:  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

instance  of  the  derivation  of  one  good  species  from 
another.  The  world  has  been  ransacked  for  an  ex- 
ample, and  occasionally  it  has  seemed  for  a  time  as 
if  an  instance  had  been  found  of  the  orioination  of  a 
genuine  species  bj  so-called  natural  agencies;  but  we 
only  give  utterance  to  the  admissions  of  all  the  recent 
advocates  of  derivative  theories  when  we  announce 
that  the  long-sought  experimentum  crucis  bas  not  been 
discovered. 

According  to  common  observation,  while  every 
specific  tj^pe  manifests  a  certain  degree  of  flexibility 
under  the  influence  of  phj'sical  conditions,  this  is  ab- 
solutely restricted  within  fixed  limits.  This  proposi- 
tion has  been  amply  illustrated  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell,^ 
whose  reasoning,  though  subsequently  disavowed,  was 
framed  in  a  more  candid  mood  than  the  disavowal. 
Sir  Charles  has  also  convincingly  shown  that  so  much 
variation  as  is  possible  may  be  generally  effected  in 
brief  intervals  of  time,  and  that  thereafter  the  variety 
can  be  no  further  modified  in  the  same  dfrection.  It 
is  also  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  the  di- 
vergent form,  when  relieved  of  the  physical  con- 
straint, rapidly  reverts  to  its  original  type. 

These  statements  are  as  true  of  divergencies  result- 
ing from  hybridity  as  from  the  influence  of  domesti- 

*  Lyell :  Principles  of  Geology^  eighth  edit.,  pp.  573-577. 


EEARIXG    UPON   THEISM.  55 

cation  or  other  external  aofencies.  Neither  have  we 
such  a  knowledge  of  the  persistence  of  forms  result- 
ing from  extraordinary  births,  as  to  be  able  to  assert 
that  the  tendency  to  reversion  is  not  so  dominant,  as 
to  prevent  the  perpetuation  of  accidental  features 
which  should  impress  whole  faunas  and  floras,  and 
transmute  whole  assemblages  of  species. 

According  to  the  hypothesis  of  derivation,  the  va- 
rieties of  domesticated  animals  and  plants  are  to  be 
regarded  as  incipient  species  capable  of  diverging  fur- 
ther and  further  from  their  original  tj^pes.  Varieties 
ought,  therefore,  occasionally  to  come  into  existence 
so  divergent  from  the  primitive  stock  that  the  phe- 
nomena of  hybridity  should  be  possible  between  them 
— /.  e.,  the  joint  offspring  of  the  variety  and  the  orig- 
inal stock,  or  two  different  varieties  of  the  oriojinal 
stock,  should  be  incapable  of  generation.  Such  a  phe- 
nomenon has  not  yet  arisen,  and  the  Darwinists  ad- 
mit the  fact  with  concern.  Professor  Huxley  says:* 
"I  do  not  know  that  there  is  a  single  fiict  which 
would  justify  any  one  in  saj'ing  that  any  degree  of 
sterility  has  been  observed  between  breeds  absolutely 
known  to  have  been  produced  by  selective  breeding 
from  a  common  stock."     Thou  oh  he  asserts  that  it 

o 

may  be  possible,  he  sa3^s  :  "  If  it  could  be  demonstra- 

*  Iluxlcy  :    On  the  Origin  of  Sj)ecies,  p.  141. 


66  evolutio:n',  and  its 


ted  that  it  is  impossible  to  breed  selectively  from  any 
stock  a  form  which  shall  not  breed  from  another  pro- 
duced from  the  same  stock;  and  if  we  were  shown 
that  this  must  be  the  necessary  and  inevitable  result 
of  all  experiments,  I  hold  that  Mr.  Darwin's  hypoth- 
esis would  be  utterly  shattered." 

But,  it  is  readilv  answered,  our  observations  have 
been  confined  to  a  period  of  time  too  brief  to  author- 
ize us  to  set  the  limits  to  the  possibility  of  variation. 
To  which  we  reply  by  appealing  to  the  records  of  the 
past.  During  the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  under 
the  first  Napoleon,  extensive  collections  of  specimens 
of  natural  history  w^ere  made,  including  thousands  of 
mummied  examples  of  animals  existing  in  Egypt  two 
or  three  thousand  years  ago.  These  were  studied  and 
reported  upon  by  a  committee  of  naturalists  appoint- 
ed by  the  Academy  of  Sciences.  These  eminent  au- 
thorities were  so  impressed  by  the  evidence  which 
the  mummied  remains  presented  of  the  absolute  con- 
stancy of  specific  forms,  that  they  add:  "It  seems  as 
if  the  superstition  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  had  been 
inspired  by  Nature,  with  the  view  of  leaving  a  monu- 
ment of  her  history.'"  "     Among  the  animals  thus  pre- 

*  "  II  semble  que  la  superstition  des  anciens  Egyptiens  ait  e'te  inspire 
par  la  Natui*e,  dans  la  vue  de  laisser  un  monument  de  son  histoire,"  etc. 
Annales  du  Museum  dHistoire  NatureJle,  torn,  i.,  pp.  235,  23G.  La- 
marck :  Philosophie  Zoologique,  torn,  i.,  p.  G9. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  57 

served  were  the  ape,  the  iclineumon,  the  crocodile, 
and  the  ibis,  besides  many  other  wild  quadrupeds, 
birds,  and  reptiles,  which  are  thus  certified  to  have 
remained  constant  during  a  period  sufficiently  long, 
one  would  suppose,  to  have  wrought  sufficient  change, 
if  total  transmutation  were  possible,  to  be  discern- 
ible by  a  body  of  zoological  experts,  one  of  whom, 
at  least,  would  have  been  greatly  gratified  by  such 
discovery."^  But  the  strongest  testimony  of  all  to 
the  permanence  of  species  w^as  shown  in  the  mum- 
mies of  domestic  animals;  for  here  were  found  abun- 
dant examples  of  the  bull,  the  dog,  and  the  cat;  and 
such  was  the  conformity  of  all  these  species  to  those 
now  livinoj,  that  there  was  no  more  diffi3rence,  savs 
Cuvier,  between  them  than  between  the  human  mum- 
mies and  the  embalmed  bodies  of  men  of  the  present 
day.  And  yet  these  species  have  since  been  trans- 
ported to  all  parts  of  the  world,  have  endured  the  in- 
fluences of  all  climates  and  all  circumstances.  The 
bearing  of  such  facts  can  not  be  gainsaid,  and  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  Professor  Huxley's  candor  has 
not  prevented  him  from  passing  them  by  with  the 
contemptuous  assertion  that  they  are  "battered  and 

hackneyed."  t 

Perhaps  the  animals  contemporary  with  man  in 

*  The  committee  consisted  of  MM.  Cuvier,  Lacepede,  and  Lamarck, 
t  Huxley  :  Lay  Sermons^  Addresses,  and  Reviews. 

3* 


58  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

Europe  during  the  Stone  Age  of  that  continent,  do  not 
reach  back  to  a  higher  than  Egyptian  antiquity ;  but  it 
is  worthy  of  mention  that  the  bison,  the  reindeer,  the 
dog,  sheep,  cat,  and  other  primitive  animals  have  un- 
dergone no  perceptible  alteration  in  the  interval  be- 
tween prehistoric  and  recent  times. 

Some  light  may  be  thrown  on  the  possibility  of  im- 
portant change  in  the  psychic  characters  of  brutes  by 
contrasting  their  fixed  intelligence  with  the  progres- 
sive intelligence  of  man.  What  progress  has  man 
made  in  intellectual,  a^sthetical,  moral,  and  religious 
development  since  the  period  when  he  was  a  dweller 
in  the  caves  of  Europe,  or  a  "mighty  hunter"  in  the 
primitive  forests  of  Assyria !  But  the  domestic  ani- 
mals which  have  kept  him  company,  and  been  the 
witnesses  of  all  his  advance,  have  gathered  no  new 
stores  of  intellectuality  or  knowledge.  We  detect  no 
tendency  to  develop  toward  the  intellectual  standard 
of  their  master.  Should  we  grant  that  the  lack  of  ar- 
ticulate speech  is  the  bar  to  their  progress,  we  grant 
and  claim  thereby  the  impossibility  of  climbing  up  to 
man  till  that  bar  is  removed.  But  have  they  given 
any  surer  signs  of  learning  to  articulate  than  they  have 
of  learning  to  think?  If  not,  then  the  bar  remains. 
This  absolute  fixity  for  a  period  of  three  or  four  thou- 
sand years,  and  this  absolute,  unchanged,  organic  in- 
capacity to  take  a  step  forward  in  intelligence,  while 


BEARING   UPON  THEISiM.  59 

man  is  demonstrating  the  possibility  of  great  move- 
ments in  brief  periods,  must  be  regarded  as  affording 
little  countenance  to  the  hypothesis  that  any  speech- 
less, unreasoning  pair  of  brutes  has  ever  departed  from 
the  norm  so  many  times  and  so  greatly  as  to  have  be- 
come a  speaking,  reasoning,  conscience-stricken  Adam 
and  Eve. 

But,  in  promising  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  records 
of  the  past,  we  did  not  propose  to  restrict  ourselves 
to  an  interval  of  two,  three,  or  five  thousand  years. 
This,  affirms  Lamarck,  is  too  brief  a  period  to  sufEce 
for  the  slow  transmutation  of  species;  w^e  rely  upon 
the  prolonged  influence  of  geologic  cycles.  Well,  we 
will  cite  a  few  examples  of  that  influence.  American 
geologists  are  very  ftimiliar  with  a  couple  of  species 
of  brachiopods  which  turn  up  under  all  lithological 
conditions,  and  through  a  wide  vertical  range  of  for- 
mations. Atrypa  reticularis  of  Dalman,  ranges  from 
the  Clinton  Group,  near  the  bottom  of  the  Upper  Si- 
lurian, through  thelMiaGcara  Shale  and  Limestone,  the 
Salina  Group,  the  formations  of  the  Lower  Ilelder- 
berg,  the  Oriskany  Sandstone,  the  Corniferous  and 
Onondaga  Limestones,  the  formations  of  the  Uamil- 
ton  Group,  the  Portage  and  Chemung  Groups,  mak- 
ing its  last  appearance  in  the  Marshall  Group,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  Carboniferous  System.  Geologists 
may  well  rc-cxamine  the  evidences  of  the  continuity 


60  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

of  the  same  species  tbrougli  so  vast  an  interval  of 
time;  but  thouorh  Mr.  Whitfield  -  has  sugorested  the 
probability  of  more  than  one  species,  the  fact  is, 
that  paleontologists  have  generally  recognized  but 
one;  and  even  if  Whitfield's  suggestions  v^^ere  con- 
firmed, the  endurance  of  an  unaltered  specific  form 
through  time  would  still  be  so  great  as  to  convey 
a  vivid  impression  of  the  constancy  of  species; 
and  we  should  still  have  no  evidence  that  the  later 
form  was  derived  from  the  earlier.  Another  spe- 
cies— Sirophomena  rhomhoidalis  of  Wahlenberg — has 
an  equal,  or  even  greater,  range  in  time,  while  similar 
doubts  have  not  been  expressed  of  the  strict  identity 
of  the  earlier  and  later  forms.  It  should  also  be 
stated  that  both  these  species  have  a  very  wide  geo- 
graphical range,  having  been  first  discovered  and 
named  in  Europe,  where  the  diverse  conditions  did 
not  stamp  npon  them  an  aspect  specifically  different 
from  the  American  forms. 

We  could  cite  from  paleontology  numerous  in- 
stances of  the  persistence  of  specific  types;  while  the 
persistence  of  well-restricted  generic  types,  through 
even  greater  intervals,  is  a  fact  of  the  same  purport, 
and  probably  of  equal  weight.     Thus,  among  exist- 


*  Whitfield :  Nineteenth  Eeport  Kew  York  Kegents  on  the  State 
Cabinet. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  61 

existing  genera,  we  find  Kauiilus^  wliich  reaches  back 
probably  to  Lower  Silurian  time;  Lingida,  which 
penetrates  even  to  the  beginning  of  the  Silurian ; 
ElujnchoneUa,  which  dates  from  the  Lower  Silurian ; 
7h'ehmtula,  which  comes  down  from  the  middle  De- 
vonian; Ostrea,  which  commences  in  the  older  Car- 
boniferous. Of  similar  import  is  the  persistence  of 
family  and  ordinal  types,  like  ganoid  fishes  and  cri- 
noidea,  from  remote  ages  to  the  present."^ 

We  may  also  cite  the  parallelism  of  the  lines  of  de- 
scent of  closely  allied  species,  through  long  intervals 
of  geological  history.  The  hypothesis  of  derivation 
implies  the  probability  that  at  least  some  of  these 
affiliated  species  should  have  had  a  common  origin, 
and  must  have  been  descending  along  divergent 
lines;  but  no  such  divergences  have  been  pointed 
out. 

The  unavoidable  conclusion  from  this  class  of  ob- 
jections is,  that  whereas  the  theory  of  variative  deri- 
vation requires  that  every  species  should  be  capable 
of  assuming,  by  insensible  degrees,  not  only  specific 
characters,  but  even  generic,  fiimily,  ordinal,  and  class 
characters  not  originally  belonging  to  it — thus  pre- 
senting, at  successive  times,  totally  changed  categories 

*  See  a  candid  admission  of  such  facts  by  Huxley  in  Critiques  and 
Addresses,  pp.  184-18G. 


62  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 


of  structure  of  all  grades — the  facts  only  show  that 
individuals  are  capable  temporarily  of  exhibiting 
considerable,  though  definitely  restricted,  variatior'^ 
wholly  within  the  limits  of  the  specific  tj-pe. 

Another  set  of  facts  which  it  concerns  the  advo- 
cates of  the  hypothesis  of  variative  derivation  to  ex- 
plain, is  the  existence  of  breaks  in  the  chain  of  affini- 
ties among  animals  and  plants.  Professor  Huxley  as- 
serts that  "  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  prove  that,  so  far  as 
structure  is  concerned,  man  differs  to  no  greater  ex- 
tent from  the  animals  which  are  immediately  below 
him  than  these  do  from  other  members  of  the  same 
order."  In  this,  however,  he  is  in  disaccord  with 
Wallace,  Owen,  Dana,  Cuvier,  and  all  the  great  au- 
thorities on  the  subject.  But  we  demand  why  he  re- 
stricts the  comparison  to  points  of  structure,  since  it 
is  man  in  his  completeness,  with  all  his  intellectual, 
moral,  and  sesthetic  faculties,  that  the  doctrine  of  der- 
ivation is  summoned  to  explain.  We  must  insist, 
with  Tyndal,  that  here  yawns  an  immense  gap  which 
it  is  impossible  to  bridge. 

But  the  case  stands  worse  than  this.  "We  are  not 
left  at  liberty  to  assume  man  the  descendant  of  quad- 
rumana  nearest  akin,  since  their  lineage  goes  little  if 
any  further  back  than  his.  If  man  be  a  derived  form, 
he  must  look  for  his  crest  among  the  ruling  families 
of  monkeys  existing  in  the  miocene  or  eocene  age. 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  63 

This  necessity  discovered,  the  assertion  of  kinship  is 
intellectual  temerity. 

The  chasm  between  vertebrates  and  invertebrates 
is  one  which  it  has  taxed  the  ingenuity  of  transmuta- 
tionists  to  bridge ;  but  it  is  thought  the  row  of  cells 
which,  in  the  young  ascidian,  presents  so  much  the 
appearance  of  the  dorsal  chord  of  the  vertebrate  em- 
bryo, must  be  the  long-sought  abutment  from  whicli 
the  arch  of  the  bridge  may  be  sprung.  But  two  cir- 
cumstances seem  to  render  this  hope  illusory.  First, 
the  cells  of  the  ascidian  sustain  relations  to  the  ven- 
tral instead  of  the  dorsal  side  of  the  animal ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, in  the  adult  ascidian,  in  which  the  higher  (ver- 
tebrate) characters  ought  to  be  more  pronounced,  there 
is  nothing  to  indicate  that  they  ever  existed. 

Many  similar  gaps  exist  in  the  actual  world  of  life. 
In  fact,  when  we  remember  that  variative  derivation 
implies  that  even  the  intervals  between  the  most  kin- 
dred species  have  at  some  time  been  filled  by  inter- 
mediate forms,  it  must  appear  that  the  actual  state  of 
the  world  comes  far  short  of  the  requirements  of  the 
theory ;  and  that  creation,  in  spite  of  what  we  know 
of  the  persistence  of  types,  must  have  lost  incalcula- 
bly more  species  than  have  come  down  to  our  times, 
or  left  their  records  in  the  rocks. 

The  rocky  record  reveals  the  existence  of  breaks 
of  serious  import  in  the  historical  succession  of  or- 


6-i  EYOLUTION".  AND   ITS 

ganic  types.  There  are  facts  of  a  suspicious  charac- 
ter in  the  very  first  chapter  of  this  record.  The  low- 
est and  oldest  assemblage  of  fossils  of  which  we  have 
any  certain  knowledge  is  in  the  bottom  of  the  Lower 
Silurian.  According  to  variative  derivation,  these 
should  be  the  simplest  possible  organisms — structure- 
less, formless,  and  germ -like.  They  are,  in  fact,  as 
highly  organized  as  brachiopods  and  trilobites.  Mr. 
Darwin  suo^orests  that  their  humbler  ancestors  must 
have  been  buried  in  strata  of  Pre-Silurian  age;  but 
in  this  country  those  strata  have  been  too  faithfully 
and  too  fruitlessly  studied  to  permit  such  a  presump- 
tion. But  then,  he  says,  their  remains,  though  once 
there,  have  been  destroj^ed  by  metamorphic  agencies. 
We  reply,  it  is  contrary  to  probabilities  that  the  im- 
mediate progenitors  of  animals  as  imperishable  and 
as  well-preserved  as  the  stone-secreting  brachiopods 
and  cephalopods  of  the  Silurian  should  have  left  no 
single  trace  of  themselves  in  the  well-explored  strata 
immediately  beneath  the  Silurian.  But  there  is  Eo- 
zoon^  the  theorist  may  now  rejoin,  as  low  down  as  the 
Lower  Laurentian,  and  this  is  the  primitive  organism 
which  w^e  require.  To  this  we  say,  the  discovery 
makes  the  case  even  worse;  for  if  this  fragile  primi- 
tive creature  could  have  been  preserved  from  times 
FO  early,  others  certainly  could  have  been  preserved 
during  the  vast  succeeding  stretch  of  Laurentian  and 


BEARING   UPON   THEISif.  65 

Iluronian  time,  bad  tbcy  existed.  The  gap,  then, 
between  Eozoon  and  tbe  Silurian  types  is  an  impassa- 
ble gulf.  Even  if  we  admit  tbe  organic  nature  of  Eo- 
zoon^ it  is  a  solitary  species,  representing  a  space  of 
perbaps  millions  of  years,  wbile,  in  tbe  first  zone  of 
Silurian  rocks,  we  know  more  tban  tbree  bund  red 
and  seventy  different  species.  But,  in  trutb,  Eozoon 
is  only  doubtfully  admitted  witbin  tbe  bounds  of  or- 
ganization. Two  Irisb  geologists,  Messrs.  King  and 
Rownej^,  bave  all  along  most  strenuously  demurred 
from  tbe  conclusion  tbat  it  is  organic;  wbile  in  our 
own  country  Messrs.  Burbank  and  Perry  bave  brought 
to  ligbt  some  facts  wbicb  are  seemingly  incompatible 
witb  a  belief  in  its  animal  character.^ 

M.  Joacbim  Barrande  bas  treated  witb  so  much 
tborougbness,  logic,  and  perspicuity  tbe  bearing  of 
tbe  paleontological  facts  of  tbe  Lower  Silurian  upon 
theories  of  variative  development,!  tbat  we  should 
leave  tbe  discussion  very  incomplete  without  making 
especial  reference  to  bis  labors.  Suffice  it  to  say  of 
his  preparation  for  the  work,  that  be  bas  devoted  a 
lifetime  to  the  study  of  the  Silurian  system  of  Bohe- 
mia, and,  collaterally,  of  all  other  countries;  that  he 

*  Proceedings  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist,,  April  19,  1871,  vol.  xiv., 
p.  189. 

t  Barrande :  Si/steme  Silurien  du  centre  de  la  Boheme.  Supplement 
to  vol.  i.     See  further,  the  Appendix  to  this  Essav. 


66  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 


has  published  several  ponderous  quarto  volumes  of 
results,  and  that  his  name  is  as  familiar  to  the  geolo- 
gists of  Europe  and  America  as  is  that  of  Uljsses 
S.  Grant  to  the  politicians.  M.  Barrande  has  shown 
that  of  three  hundred  and  sixtj-six  species  of  fossils 
from  the  primordial  zone  of  Europe  and  America, 
collected  in  twelve  different  countries,  only  fourteen 
are  "  migrant,"  i.  e.,  common  to  two  of  these  countries. 
Now,  as  these  species  are  so  closely  related  to  each 
other  that  geologists  refer  them  to  identical  genera 
known  as  Paradoxides,  Olenus^  Conoceplicdites^  Agnos- 
tus,  etc.,  and  as  they  rose  into  being  simultaneously 
in  various  countries,  and  under  circumstances  so  wide- 
ly contrasted,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  filiative 
relationship  among  them  ;  and  he  feels  constrained  to 
believe  that  the  phenomenon  is  the  result  of  a  com- 
mon sovereign  and  ordaining  cause.* 

The  "lower  phase"  of  the  Primordial  Zone  of  the 
Silurian  is  measured  by  the  lifetime  of  the  genus 
Paradoxides.  Contemporaneous  with  Paradoxides 
were  a  hundred  and  sixty-eight  species  of  trilobites, 
which  came  suddenly  into  existence  with  the  dawn 
of  the  Silurian  Age — having  no  trilobitic  forerunners 
in  earlier  time,  and  with  no  animal  organism  what- 
ever of  earlier  date,  except  some  very  questionable 

*  See  the  8vo  "  Extrait,"  from  the  "Supplement,"  p.  193. 


BEARING   UPON   TIIEIS^^.  67 

forms,  bearing,  if  we  take  tliem  into  account,  but  a 
remote  relationship  to  trilobites.  We  seek  in  vain 
for  the  relics  of  such  ancestral  forms  as  theories  of 
variative  derivation  demand.^ 

Again,  we  know  of  forty -six  primordial  genera 
"which  came  into  existence  with  Paradoxides.  All 
these  are  very  distinctly  defined.  We  look  for  the 
intermediate  generic  forms  which,  on  the  derivative 
hypothesis,  must  have  existed;  but  to  this  day  no 
single  one  has  been  found.f 

The  larger  groups  are  similarly  isolated.  We  know 
eleven  distinct  fimily  types  of  primordial  fossils  whicli 
are  as  sharply  cut  off  from  each  other  as  the  same 
families  are  in  any  subsequent  age.  Between  a  trilo- 
bite  like  Paradoxides^  for  instance,  and  an  ostracod 
like  PrimiU'a,  a  little  bivalve  crustacean,  the  difference 
of  conformation  is  so  pronounced  that  if  one  could 
imagine  the  two  types  derived  from  the  same  com- 
mon ancestor,  he  would  feel  compelled  to  concede 
the  existence  of  a  multitude  of  intermediate  forms 
which  must  have  existed  before  the  period  of  Para- 
doxides and  the  contemporaneous  ostracods.  But  we 
have  said  no  trace  of  such  forms  has  been  discovered. 
Similar  statements  apply  to  the  other  firnily  types  of 
the  primordial  zone;  and,  in  fact,  to  a  large  number 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  20G.  t  Ibid.,  pp.  200,  201. 


68  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

of  zoological  types  distributed  through  the  later  peri- 
ods of  the  earth's  histor3^ 

The  paleontological  record  has  furnished  us  with 
other  facts  of  even  a  stronger  character  than  these. 
The  graduated  order  of  succession,  judging  from  the 
facts  in  our  possession,  has  sometimes  been  actually 
reversed.  In  the  Mesozoic  time,  certain  gigantic  rep- 
tiles, called  Deinosauria,  of  high  organization,  and  in 
some  respects  presenting  an  approximation  to  mam- 
mals, existed  as  a  dominant  type.  Their  position  was 
near  the  head  of  the  class ;  and  yet  they  had  not  been 
preceded  by  all  the  lower  orders  of  reptiles.  Ser- 
pents, for  instance,  did  not  make  their  appearance 
till  the  Eocene  Period.  In  like  manner  Labyrinth- 
odonts,  which  are  hypertypical  batrachians,  appeared 
during  the  deposition  of  the  Coal  Measures;  while 
typical  batrachians — frogs— did  not  make  their  ad- 
vent till  the  Eocene.*  So  fishes  related  to  sharks, 
and  gar-pikes  were  the  earliest  representatives  of  their 
class.  Ordinary  fishes,  lower  in  rank  than  these,  did 
not  appear  till  the  Mesozoic  time.f 

The  primordial  zone  may  be  again  appealed  to  for 
its  testimonv.    Here,  in  the  first  assemblage  of  animal 


*  This  is  a  recent  determination  by  Professor  Cope :  Proc.  Acad. 
Nat.  Sciences,  March,  1873,  p.  207. 
"  t  Facts  of  this  class  are  also  admitted  by  Huxley  to  present  diffi- 
culties.     Critiques  and  Addresses,  p.  187. 


BEARING   UPON   TIIEIS^L  69 

forms  which  ever  existed,  we  have  a  large  predomi- 
nance of  animals  as  high  in  organization  as  trilobites. 
In  the  earlier  phase,  three-fourths  of  all  the  fossils  are 
crustaceans.  The  remaining  species  are  all  lower  in 
rank  than  crustaceans.  In  the  later  phase  of  the 
primordial,  two -thirds  are  crustaceans.  In  the  sub- 
sequent periods,  the  lower  types  increase  still  further 
in  relative  abundance,  both  of  individuals  and  species. 
Among  the  trilobites  themselves  may  be  traced  an 
inversion  of  the  order  required  by  theory.  M.  Bar- 
rande  has  found  the  embryos  of  this  type  fossilized 
in  considerable  numbers,  and  has  studied  their  de- 
velopment-historj^  The  successive  stages  are  charac- 
terized by  a  gradually  increasing  number  of  thoracic 
sesfments.  This  order,  according^  to  the  law  univers- 
ally  recognized,  indicates  that  tribolites  with  few  seg- 
ments occupy  a  position  below  those  with  numerous 
segments.  Accordino^lv,  the  f^renera  with  few  seo-- 
ments  should  precede,  in  time,  the  others.  But  the 
exact  reverse  of  this  is  the  fact.  Nearly  all  the  gen- 
era of  the  earlier  phase  of  the  primordial  have  more 
than  eleven  seofinents  —  Paradoxides  itself  havin^j 
twenty.  But  in  the  second  fauna  of  the  Lower  Silu- 
rian we  encounter  simultaneouslv,  in  all  the  countries 
of  the  two  continents,  a  large  number  of  species  hav- 
ing few  segments.  We  know  three  hundred  and 
twenty -two  species  whose  thorax  is  composed  of  five 


70  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

to  nine  segments.  At  the  same  time,  the  second  fauna 
does  not  a£ford  a  single  trilobite  having  as  numerous 
segments  as  Ariojiellus,  Sao  and  Paradoxides  of  the 
first  phase  of  the  primordial  fauna.* 

It  is  a  principle  first  enunciated  by  Professor  Dana,f 
that  the  earliest  representatives  of  a  zoological  group 
were  neither  the  highest  nor  the  lowest  members,  but 
generally  some  type  a  little  distance  above  the  bot- 
tom of  the  group.  From  this  point  the  evolution 
proceeded  chiefly  upward,  but  also,  to  some  extent, 
downward. 

Were  the  species  of  animals  and  plants  variatively 
derived  from  a  few  simple  primordial  ancestors,  it  is 
unaccountable  that  the  simplest  types  have  remained 
in  existence  to  the  present  day.  If  changed  condi- 
tions occasion  new  modifications,  and  new  specific  and 
higher  types,  we  should  expect  the  primitive  stocks 
to  have  disappeared. 

Animals  are  generally  intolerant  of  changed  condi- 
tions. Instead  of  undergoing  any  profound  modifica- 
tions, they  migrate  or  perish.  Thus,  the  molluscs 
which  in  Post-Tertiary  time  inhabited  the  estuary 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  have  removed,  under  changed 
conditions,  to  the  shores  of  the  ISTorth  Atlantic.     The 


*  Barrande  :   Op.  cit.,  pp.  240-242. 
t  Dana :   Manual  of  Geology^  p.  39G. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  71 

descendants  of  species  which  flourished  on  the  coast 
of  New  England  in  a  cooler  age  are  now  to  be  found 
upon  the  coast  of  Greenland.  In  a  similar  manner, 
the  reindeer  has  withdrawn,  wuth  the  amelioration  of 
the  climate,  from  Southern  Europe  to  Lapland. 

We  have  thus  briefly  adverted  to  the  leading  class- 
es of  facts  which  seem  difficult  and,  in  some  cases,  im- 
possible to  reconcile  with  any  of  the  theories  of  vari- 
ative  derivation  —  whether  Spencerian  evolution  or 
Lamarckian  transmutation,  or  any  of  the  phases  of 
Darwinism.  It  remains  to  signalize  an  array  of  facts 
which  reveal  themselves  in  the  field  of  the  physiolog- 
ical forces. 

(2.)  Prominent  Ohjections  in  the  Field  of  the  PJnjsio- 
logical  Forces. — The  defenders  of  theories  of  variative 
derivation  repose  great  stress  upon  the  modifying  or 
directive  influence  of  external  conditions.  A  further 
critical  examination  of  facts  will  sliow  that  an  un- 
warranted degree  of  importance  has  been  conceded  to 
influences  of  this  class,  and  that  the  phenomena  arc 
better  explained  by  referring  them  to  the  action  of 
some  internal  force  which-  exerts  itself  both  with  ref- 
erence to  physical  surroundings  and  with  reference  to 
the  necessities  of  the  animal,  and  also  with  reference 
to  archetypal  conceptions. 

The  action  of  the  j^hysical  influence  is  often^  if  not  al- 
luays^  against  the  development  of  the  organic  modification 


72  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

luhich  appears  in  correlation  icith  it.  Lamarck  alleged 
that  the  elongated  proboscis  of  the  elephant,  and  the 
long  neck  and  extensile  tongue  of  the  giraffe,  all  so 
beautifully  correlated  to  the  instincts  of  these  brows- 
ing animals,  have  been  produced  by  their  continued 
efforts  to  secure  the  food  suited  to  their  organization. 
Now  the  idea  is  conceivable  that  a  long -continued 
physical  action  upon  an  organ  should  result  in  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  modification ;  and  that  the  action  of 
muscles,  in  extending  the  lips,  for  instance,  should 
eventuate  in  a  permanent  extension,  as  in  the  pro- 
boscidians; but  it  is  not  conceivable  that  physical 
forces  should  conduce  to  an  ororanic  modification 
which  proceeds  in  a  direction  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  direction  of  those  forces.  Kow,  no  one  can 
deny  that  the  elongated  fore  legs  of  the  giraffe  stand 
in  as  intimate  relation  to  its  wants  as  its  elongated 
neck  or  tongue.  But  the  p)liysical  force  acting  uj^on 
the  legs  is  the  weight  of  the  animal,  which  tends 
rather  to  shorten  than  lens^then  them.  It  will  not  do 
to  reply  that  the  legs  of  all  animals  in  the  growing 
state  continue  to  lengthen, -notwithstanding  the  press- 
ure in  the  opposite  direction;  since  noone  will  pretend 
that  this  growth  is  the  effect  of  the  pressure,  but  rath- 
er of  some  force  which,  in  spite  of  the  pressure,  acts 
toward  a  result  correlated  to  the  ideal  concept  of  the 
adult  animal.     Here,  consequently,  is  a  real  correla- 


BEARING  UrOX  THEISM.  73 

tion  which  is  not  produced  by  any  known  physical 
force.  It  must,  therefore,  be  produced  by  some  other 
kind  of  force.  It  will  not  suffice  to  call  it  a  physio- 
logical force,  if  by  this  is  meant  some  force  resolva- 
ble into  endosmose,  capilLarity,  affinity,  etc. — as  main- 
tained by  Draper,  Barker,  Spencer,  and  others  —  for 
these  are  physical  forces,  and  act,  like  mechanical 
forces,  only  along  lines  of  least  resistance.  A\"e  sec 
no  alternative  but  to  refer  the  phenomenon  in  ques- 
tion, and  the  whole  class  to  wdiich  it  belonc^s,  to  the 
directive  and  controlling  action  of  some  force  which 
is  superphysical. 

The  difficulty  in  this  case  is  paralleled  by  that  of 
every  case  in  which  we  attempt  to  conceive  of  phys- 
ical agencies  as  developing  organs  from  their  incipi- 
ency;  as,  for  instance,  the  electric  organs  of  certain 
fishes,  the  illuminatinG^  or<]^ans  of  fire  flies  and  other 
insects,  and  the  mammary  organs  of  a  whole  class  of 
vertebrates.  Mr.  Darwin  himself  has  admitted  the 
difficulty. 

Nor  does  the  situation  seem  to  be  materially  al- 
tered when  we  attempt  to  npply  the  thcor}^  to  organs 
ill  any  stage  of  development.  The  physical  influ- 
ences, strictly  speaking,  are  generally  opposed  to  the 
result.  The  result  takes  place,  and  manifests  a  cor- 
relation to  the  physical  conditions;  and  a  natural 
suofcrestion  is,  that  the  ])hvsical  condilions  were  the 


74  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

cause.     The  conditioning  cause  they  may  be,  but  not 
the  efficient  cause. 

Another  general  principle  indicating  that  the  effi- 
cient cause  of  organic  modifications  is  hyperphysical, 
is  the  fact  that  very  specific  plnjsiccd  influences  are  not 
alivcnjs,  nor  even  generally^  accompanied  hy  such  modifi- 
cations as  are^  in  j^ctrallel  cases,  attributed  to  them.  The 
quadrumanous  tribes  of  different  countries  are  accus- 
tomed to  ascend  trees  for  the  purpose  of  procuring 
nuts  to  serve  as  their  natural  food.  Their  Ions:  arms, 
their  four  prehensile  extremities,  and,  in  some  cases, 
their  prehensile  tails,  seem  especially  adapted  to  the 
function  of  climbing;  and,  on  derivative  hypothe- 
ses, these  organs  have  been  moulded  to  these  capabili- 
ties by  the  pressure  of  their  wants  and  long  practice 
in  efforts  to  climb.  But  the  nuts,  for  the  procure- 
ment of  which  these  orcrans  are  so  serviceable,  are 
equally,  in  some  cases,  the  principal  food  of  the  na- 
tive people  of  the  same  countries;  and  they  are  in 
the  habit  of  training  these  quadrumana  to  collect  the 
nuts  for  them.  One  of  the  baboons  of  Sumatra  is 
said  to  exercise  great  judgment  in  selecting  only  the 
ripe  ones,  and  in  pulling  no  more  than  he  is  ordered."^ 
The  capuchin  and  cacajao  monkeys,  according  to 
Humboldtjf  are   similarly  expert.      Now,   it  seems 

*  Raffles,  Sir  Stamford  :  Linnean  Trans. ^  vol.  xii.,  p.  244. 
t  Humboldt :  Personal  Narrative. 


BEARING    UPON   THEISM.  75 

that  these  quadrumana  and  the  people  associated  with 
them  are  equally  in  need  of  the  cocoa-nut,  and  are 
surrounded  and  influenced  by  the  same  climate,  the 
same  longings,  and  the  same  food ;  and  it  is  unac- 
countable that  Nature  has  not  developed  for  the  men 
a  set  of  organs  as  well  adapted  to  the  situation  as 
those  she  has  given  to  the  brutes.  If,  furthermore, 
we  assert  that  men  are  developed  quadrumana,  we 
behold  in  these  cases  a  development  directly  opposed 
to  the  tendency  of  the  strongest  physical  influences. 

To  take  another  example  from  a  different  field. 
Professor  Hooker^  informs  us  that  he  traced  dis- 
tinctly a  stream  of  identical  vegetable  forms  all  tire 
way  from  Scandinavia  to  Tasmania,  "Scandinavian 
genera,"  saj's  he,  "and  even  species,  re-appear  every- 
where from  Lapland  and  Iceland  to  the  tops  of  the 
Tasmanian  Alps.  -  "^^  ■^*  They  abound  on  the  Alps 
and  Pyrenees,  pass  on  to  the  Caucasus  and  Himalaya, 
thence  they  extend  along  the  Khasia  Mountains  and 
those  of  the  peninsulas  of  India  to  '^  '"  '"  Java  and 
Borneo,  "-^  *  *  and  re-appear  on  the  Alps  of  Kew 
South  Wales,  Victoria,  and  Tasmania,  and  beyond 
these  again  on  those  of  Xew  Zealand  and  the  Ant- 
arctic islands — manij  of  the  species  remaining  unchanged 
throughout^     These  are  very  remarkable  fiiets,  even 

*  Hooker  :  Flora  of  Tasmania.     Introductory  Essay.    Eeprinted, 
Araer.  Jour,  Science  and  Arts  [2],  xxix.,  323. 


76  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

taken  by  themselves;  but  tlie  more  extraordinary 
the  width  of  this  distribution  of  identical  species,  the 
more  completely  are  "we  at  a  loss  to  account,  on  de- 
rivative principles,  for  such  uniformities  of  character 
under  circumstances  so  diverse.  The  widely  sepa- 
rated stations  of  these  Scandinavian  species  can  hard- 
ly possess  any  other  common  resemblance  than  their 
Alpine  climate.  If,  however,  it  w^ere  supposable  that 
similar  conditions  have  developed  identical  species  at 
points  so  remote,  a  degree  of  coincidence  is  implied 
which  is  rendered  extremely  improbable  by  the  doc- 
trine of  chances ;  and  if  we  suppose  that  Scandinavian 
species  have  migrated  to  the  antipodes,  the  wonder 
is  that  they  had  not  been  transmuted  before  travers- 
ing half  the  circumference  of  the  earth.  The  expla- 
nation of  these  and  similar  phenomena  seems  to  be, 
that  specific  types  possess  a  degree  of  constancy  which 
withstands  all  external  modifying  influences,  except 
wnthin  certain  limits  of  elasticity  which  do  not  sac- 
rifice their  identity. 

We  should  remark  further,  that  the  same  physical 
wfluence  is  often  accompanied  hy  profoundly  differing 
organizations.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  an  apter- 
ous insect  and  an  apterous  vertebrate  would  be  ex- 
cited by  similar  longings  for  the  power  to  rise  above 
the  earth.  It  should  be  supposed  that  in  the  same 
region,  and  under  the  same  set  of  circumstances,  the 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  7i 

necessity  of  flight  would  result  in  the  development  of 
wings  constructed  at  leost  upon  the  same  fundamental 
plan.  But  the  plan  of  the  insect's  wing  is  conformed 
to  the  articulate  archetype,  and  the  plan  of  the  bird's 
wing  to  the  vertebrate  archetj^pe.  Nor  is  the  result 
the  same  when  the  wings  are  developed  under  the 
same  archetype.  The  bird's  wing  is  a  fan  of  quills 
fixed  in  a  consolidated  mass  of  obsolescent  phalangeal, 
metacarpal,  carpal,  and  ulnar  bones  and  cartilages, 
and  leaving  the  hinder  extremities  entirely  free.  The 
bat's  wing  is  a  leathery  membrane  stretched  over  the 
elongated  and  fully  articulated  fingers,  and  thence 
joining  the  body  and  the  whole  length  of  the  poste- 
rior limb,  and  continuinsr  to  the  tail.  It  is  fair  to 
bring  into  the  same  comparison  the  winged  reptiles 
which,  though  no  longer  existent,  manifested  a  corre- 
lation of  an  identical  kind  by  means  of  a  still  difler- 
ent  structure.  Tlic  wing  of  the  Plerodadijl  was  a 
leathery  membrane  stretched  only  from  the  fifth  dig- 
it to  the  hinder  limbs.  This  digit  was  accordingly 
enormously  elongated,  while  the  others  were  of  nor- 
mal Icno-th.  On  the  doctrine  of  correlation  to  ideal 
archetypes,  these  various  plans  of  alar  structure  are 
intelligible  and  beautiful;  but  on  the  hypothesis  of 
development  through  the  influence  of  forces  essen- 
tially physical,  the  spectacle  is  inexplicable. 

Similar   difiicullies  arise  in   the  structural  diiVer- 


78  EVOLUTION,  AXD   ITS 

ences  between  the  pectoral  fin  of  a  fish  and  the  pad- 
dle of  an  Enaliosaurian  reptile,  or  a  whale;  between 
the  elongated  neck  of  the  e^iraffe  and  the  elongated 
proboscis  of  the  elephant ;  between  the  provision 
of  flattened-cylindrical,  dentinally -imbedded,  enamel- 
plates  in  the  molar  of  the  extinct  American  elephant, 
and  the  simple  enamel  crust  of  the  molar  of  his  con- 
temporary and  germane  proboscidean,  the  American 
mastodon ;  between  the  provision  of  a  rattle  in  cer- 
tain species  of  serpents,  and  the  absence  of  it  in  their 
neighbors.  In  short,  wherever  the  same  functions  are 
executed  by  locally  associated  animals  by  means  of 
organs  having  divergent  structures  and  conforma- 
tions, it  seems  most  natural  to  suppose  that  these  re- 
sults have  been  produced  by  something  more  than 
material  influences.  And  when,  at  the  same  time,  we 
see  them  admirably  conformed  to  intelligible  ideal 
concepts,  we  feel  impelled  toward  a  conviction  that 
an  inner-working  force  is  operating  with  a  view  to 
ends,  and  in  disregard  of  the  opposition  or  co-work- 
ing of  physical  forces. 

We  feel  led  to  carry  this  point  to  the  extent  of  sug- 
gesting that  the  absence  of  any  organ  in  any  animal 
which  has  been  found  subservient  to  the  needs  of  an- 
other animal  in  the  same  province,  is  a  circumstance 
for  which  no  unequal  influence  of  physical  conditions 
can  be  summoned  to  account.     It  is  not  easy  to  per- 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  ,79 

ceive,  for  instance,  in  what  respect  the  squirrel  Las 
less  need  of  organs  for  aerial  locomotion  tlian  tbe  par- 
tridge, or  the  sparrow,  or  the  diver.  Yet  tbese  all 
live  together  with  the  squirrel,  under  identical  phys- 
ical conditions,  but  with  strongly  contrasted  loco- 
motive apparatus.  One  would  think  the  porpoise 
would  be  as  much  benefited  and  convenienced  bv  the 
faculty  of  breathing  water  as  his  neighbor  the  stur- 
geon is.  If  the  moccasin  needs  a  poison-fang  for  self- 
defense,  so  does  the  garter-snake.  It  may  momenta- 
rily relieve  certain  cases  to  assert  that  the  organiza- 
tions and  instincts  and  needs  of  animals  differ;  but 
why  do  they  differ?  That  is  the  problem  we  are 
seekinsi:  to  resolve. 

The  true  explanation  of  these  phenomena,  as  of 
many  others,  is  the  fact  that  organic  modificallons 
have  rcfjard  to  ideal  concepts  as  ivell  as  external  condi- 
tions. Organic  structures,  as  we  have  already  inti- 
mated, are  correlated  to  correlates  of  two  different  cat- 
egories :  7*Trs^,  Phj'sical  surroundings;  Second,  Ideal 
concepts.  The  phj^sical  surroundings  are,  1.  Condi- 
tions connected  with  climate,  food,  topogra})h3^,  etc.; 
2.  The  condition  of  the  orc^ans  of  the  bodv  in  refer- 
ence  to  each  other.  The  ideal  concepts  are,  1.  Ar- 
chetypes or  ideal  plans  according  to  which  organic 
structures  arc  conformed,  like  the  concept  of  a  sub- 
kingdom,  a  class,  or  an  order;  2.  Antecedent,  rcgu- 


80  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

lative  principles,  methods,  or  laws  of  activity,  under 
which  organic  evolutions  are  carried  on ;  as  those  va- 
rious principles  or  criteria  which  signalize  differences 
of  rank  among  animals,  and  the  concept  of  an  animal 
adapted  to  a  particular  element,  food,  or  station. 

!N^ow,  the  modifications  which  exist  with  reference 
to  ideal  concepts  are  as  real  and  as  great  as  those 
which  exist  with  reference  to  phj^sical  surroundings. 
Indeed,  they  are  much  greater,  for  they  affect  and 
determine  the  fundamental  structures,  while  physical 
surroundings,  by  all  admissions,  impress  only  the  de- 
tails. But  modifications  having  reference  to  an  ideal 
concept  are  not  wrought  out  by  physical  inflaences. 
The  bird  and  the  butterfly,  exposed  to  the  same  phys- 
ical influences,  and  urged  by  the  same  needs,  develop 
locomotive  organs  funciionally  similar  for  these  rea- 
sons; but  they  are  structuralhj  diverse,  for  no  other 
reason  assignable  than  that  the  whole  plan  of  the  but- 
terfly is  fundamentally  different  from  that  of  the  bird, 
and  the  wings  of  each  must  harmonize  with  the  plan 
of  the  animal.  Thus,  also,  the  porpoise  does  not  ac- 
quire the  ability  to  respire  water,  not  because  the  ne- 
cessity is  less  than  in  the  sturgeon,  but  because  an 
ideal  concept  or  principle  dominates  and  constrains 
the  organization  of  the  porpoise,  the  whale,  the  dol- 
phin, and  the  manatee  against  the  analogies  and  influ- 
ences, and,  one  would  almost  think,  the  necessities,  of 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  81 

an  aquatic  habitat.  This  ideal  concept  is  the  law  of 
diversity  applied  to  the  mammalian  class,  which  or- 
dains that  nature  shall  afford  aquatic  mammals  as  well 
as  terrestrial;  and  some  force  overrules  the  predispos- 
ing influence  of  the  watery  element. 

The  young  batrachian,  during  a  certain  period  of 
its  existence,  possesses  perfectly  developed  gills,  and 
breathes  water  like  its  neighbor,  the  fish.  After  a 
time,  without  the  least  change  in  its  physical  circum- 
stances, air-breathing  organs  begin  to  undergo  a  de- 
velopment, and  the  gills  begin  to  be  absorbed.  This 
complete  transformation  of  the  tadpole's  structural 
adaptations  takes  place  without  the  slightest  diminu- 
tion of  the  present  necessity  for  breathing  water,  with 
all  the  physical  conditions  opposed  to  it,  and  only  in 
anticipation  of  changed  conditions  which  are  destined 
to  be  assumed  in  obedience  to  an  internal  law  of  the 
creature's  being,  shaping  all  its  organization  with  ref- 
erence to  the  ideal  concept  of  an  amphibious  batra- 
chian. 

The  pampas  of  the  La  Plata  appear  to  be  admi- 
rably adapted  to  the  nature  and  wants  of  the  wild 
horse.  But,  according  to  all  information,  these  fx- 
voring  conditions,  existing  through  a  geologic  period, 
failed  to  develop  any  herds  of  horses,  since  these 
modern  herds  are  derived  from  individuals  escaped 
from  a  state  of  domestication.     This  failure  of  nature 

4* 


82  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

to  produce  the  quadrupeds  suited  to  the  conditions  is 
the  more  surprising  since  we  know  that  the  equine 
type  of  quadrupeds  existed  in  America  from  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Eocene.  AVe  are,  in  fact,  acquainted  with 
the  remains  of  twenty -one  species  of  horse-like  ani- 
mals ;  and  the  genus  of  true  horses  has  been  traced 
down  to  the  times  immediately  preceding  the  present. 
Here  we  see  that,  though  the  favoring  conditions  of 
equine  life  did  not  change,  they  failed  to  perpetuate 
a  type  of  animals  already  in  existence. 

Similar  difficulties  arise  in  reference  to  most  of 
those  types  of  animals  and  plants  which  human 
agency  has  transferred  from  one  continent  to  an- 
other, and  which,  in  their  new  conditions,  have  con- 
tinued to  be  perpetuated,  in  the  wild  state,  with  un- 
diminished or  even  with  increased  luxuriance.  These 
are  evidences  that  the  physical  conditions  of  the  coun- 
tries receiving  the  new  importations  had  not  been 
adequate  to  develop  certain  forms  of  organization 
most  admirably  suited  to  them,  and  that  consequent- 
ly the  organisms  existing  in  a  country  and  correlated 
to  it  have  not  grown  out  of  it,  but  have  been  intro- 
duced into  it  by  some  power  from  without. 

The  controlling  influence  of  a  fundamental  concept 
in  shaping  the  organization  of  animals  is  further  seen 
in  identity  of  conformation  under  diversified  condi- 
tions.    The  porpoise  dwelling  in  the  sea  breathes  air 


BEARING   UPON  TIIEIS.Ar.  83 

like  the  ox  dwelling  on  the  land.  That  the  porpoise 
or  the  whale  should  be  endowed  with  lungs  requiring 
it  to  rise  to  the  surAice  to  breathe,  is  quite  as  unex- 
pected and  incongruous  as  if  the  buffalo  had  been 
gifted  with  gills  demanding  a  periodical  plunge  into 
the  watery  element  to  perpetuate  its  existence.  Here 
is  a  unity  of  fundamental  type — the  mammalian  type, 
wdiich  predestines  the  marine  and  the  terrestrial  mam- 
mal equally  to  certain  structural  modifications,  how- 
ever apparently  incompatible  with  the  conditions  to 
which  they  may  be  assigned  by  another  ideal  concept 
— diversity  of  adaptations  under  unity  of  plan. 

The  whole  range  of  varying  adaptations  within  the 
limits  of  any  fundamental  tj^pe  of  structure  supplies 
an  exhaustless  fund  of  illustrations  of  a  similar  char- 
acter. The  vertebrate  tj'pe  of  animal  structure  is,  in 
its  essentials,  identical  in  animals  which  walk  on  the 
earth,  like  the  deer;  or  burrow  beneath  the  earth,  like 
the  mole;  or  live  in  trees,  like  the  squirrel;  or  fly 
in  the  air,  like  the  bat;  or  swim  in  the  water,  like  the 
whale.  It  is  still  the  vertebrate  type,  under  another 
class-modification,  which  in  its  ordinal  gradations  pre- 
sents us  with  the  soaring  eagle  spying  out  his  prey, 
the  sparrow  seeking  the  ripened  seed,  the  hummer 
balanced  over  the  nectar  of  a  flower,  the  duck  filter- 
ing the  lake- side  ooze,  the  diver  plunging  for  the 
perch,  the  woodpecker  drilling  for  his  grub,  the  hen 


84  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

scratching  for  her  worm.  Do  we  realize  that  this 
wide  diversity  of  structures  and  adaptations  among 
mammals  and  birds  exists  under  a  single  fundamental 
concept — that  of  the  vertebrate  archetype;  and  that 
an  equal  range  of  modifications  under  the  same  con- 
cept may  be  traced  through  the  classes  of  reptiles  and 
fishes?  And  do  we  realize  that  this  conformity  to 
an  archetype  is  preserved  sometimes  against  i\\e  tend- 
ency of  the  environment,  and  even  to  the  inconven- 
ience of  the  animal  ?  Now,  it  has  been  susfofested  that 
this  general  subordination  to  a  fundamental  tj^pe  im- 
plies common  descent  from  some  remote  ancestor; 
but,  to  say  nothing  here  of  missing  links,  does  it  not 
look  more  like  the  influence  of  an  urgent,  all-control- 
ling power,  acting  under  the  guidance  of  an  intelligi- 
ble plan  which  thus  holds  sway  entirely  apart  from 
phj^sical  conditions,  and  with  the  sole  purpose  of  as- 
serting; the  dominion  of  thouo;ht  in  the  org^anic  world  ? 

o  o  o 

There  is  a  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  existence 
of  what  have  been  termed  rudimentary  organs,  which 
seems  to  clinch  the  teaching  deduced  from  the  fore- 
going group  of  facts.  Rudimentary  organs  are  the 
useless  rudiments  of  structures  which  in  other  animals 
are  seen  developed  into  organs  actually  subservient 
to  certain  needs.  Examples  of  these  are  seen  in  the 
bone  called  os  coccyofis  in  the  hi2;her  tailless  mammals, 
and  in  birds;  in  the  rudimentary  lungs  of  the  gar- 


BEARING   UPON   T1IEIS.M.  85 

pike  and  the  Kedur us ^  and  in  tlic  air-bladders  of  whole 
tribes  of  fishes.  We  delight  to  regard  sueh  structures 
as  premeditated  intimations  of  the  dominance  of  gen- 
eral plans  which  continue  operative  under  all  the 
varying  conditions  of  life.  Believers  in  derivative 
development  regard  them  as  vestiges  of  structures 
w^hich  have  become  obsolescent  through  disuse.  The 
os-coccygis  of  the  human  subject  is  the  shrunken 
caudal  appendage  of  the  lower  quadrumana  —  the 
heritage  bequeathed  from  an  ignoble  ancestr^^  !Mod- 
ern  discovery  has  produced  a  fossil  bird  which  seems 
to  lend  countenance  to  this  method  of  explaining  ru- 
dimentary organs.  The  Archijeopteryx^  a  fossil  bird  of 
Solenhofen,  had  a  long  vertebrated  tail,  like  a  saurian, 
with  the  tail-quills  fringing  it  on  either  side.  Kow 
this  tail  was  inherited,  they  say,  from  the  saurian  rep- 
tiles of  an  earlier  aQ:e ;  and  the  os-coccv2:is  of  modern 
birds  is  but  its  obsolescent  rudiment.  This  certainly 
looks  plausible ;  and  we  shall  accept  such  explana- 
tions when  no  others  commend  themselves  more 
strongly  to  our  judgment,  and  certain  stubborn  facts 
are  removed  entirely  out  of  the  way. 

It  must  be  apparent  that  the  phenomenon  of  the 
os-coccygis,  viewed  in  isolation  from  other  considera- 
tions, is  quite  as  explicable  on  the  hypothesis  of  dom- 
inant typical  ideas  as  on  the  hypothesis  of  heredity. 
The  derivative  theory  has  no  advantage,  therefore, 


86  EVOLUTION,  AXL>  ITS 


even  in  cases  like  these,  where  the  rudimentary  con- 
dition of  an  organ  is  subsequent  to  its  fullj  developed 
condition.  Bat  there  is  another  set  of  cases  which 
the  hypothesis  of  hereditary  transmission  can  not 
reach.  There  is,  at  least,  an  equal  number  of  in- 
stances in  which  the  existence  of  oro-ans  in  a  rudi- 
nientary  condition  is  historically  antecedent  to  their 
existence  in  a  fully  developed  condition.  This  is  the 
case  with  the  rudimentary  lungs  of  the  tadpole,  al- 
ready cited  for  another  purpose;  and  this  is  more 
notably  the  case  with  the  rudimentary  lungs  of  the 
gar-pikes,  and  o^ Keciurus  and  other  batrachians  which 
never  attain  to  the  condition  of  air-breathers.  Now, 
will  the  derivationist  assert  that  the  coarsely  vesicular 
lung  of  the  perennibranchiate  salamanders  is  the  obso- 
lescent oroan  of  some  air-breathin2^  ancestor?  Then 
Nature  has  witnessed  a  deofradation  of  her  forms,  in- 
stead  of  an  advance,  and  the  principle  of  natural  se- 
lection must  be  summoned  to  account  for  a  regression 
in  the  earliest  representatives  of  this  type  from  a  re- 
moter and  more  perfect  state,  which  the  testimony  of 
paleontology  assures  us  is  purely  imaginary.  Admit- 
ting that  the  fittest  to  survive  may  have  been  at  some 
period  an  individual  inferior  in  organization  to  his 
fellows,  we  have  not  yet  passed  the  most  formidable 
difficulties.  The  gar-pike  belongs  to  a  tj-pe  of  fishes 
which  existed  a  geological  period  previous  to  the 


BEARING  UPON  THEISM.  87 

existence  of  any  air-breathing  vertebrate.  No  one 
doubts  that  the  internal  or^^anization  of  the  existinor 
gar-pike  fairly  represents  that  of  the  Carboniferous 
and  Devonian  Lepldosteidce  in  America;  and  no  one 
pretends  that  we  have  any  inductive  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  air-breathing  animals  in  America  at  an 
epoch  as  early  as  these  Devonian,  or  even  Carbonifer- 
ous, ganoids.  It  is  utterly  impossible  to  expkiin  their 
possession  of  rudimentary  lungs  on  the  theory  of  dis- 
use of  organs  belonging  to  their  ancestors.  Kow,  on 
the  hypothesis  of  an  overshadowing  plan  of  organic 
structure,  framed  by  intelligence,  carried  into  execu- 
tion under  the  guidance  of  intelligence,  behold  how 
beautiful  and  how  gratifying  an  explanation  of  all 
these  rudimentary  structures.  The  primitive  concept 
of  a  vertebrated  animal  existing  in  the  mind  of  crea- 
tive intelligence  was  one  which  should  be  adapted  to 
both  elements,  and  should  have  the  structures  re- 
quired for  breathing  either  air  or  water.  Thus,  be- 
fore the  world  was  fitted  for  an  air-breather,  there 
were  in  existence  fishes,  which,  with  their  rudiment- 
ary but  useless  lungs,  enunciated  a  conformity  to 
plan,  and  became  the  prophetic  announcement  of  a 
tj'pe  which  should  breathe  air  in  a  better  condition 
of  the  world.  Thus,  also,  the  branchiate  phase  of 
even  the  human  embryo,  under  circumstances  where 
every  form  of  respiration  is  superseded,  is  an  idle  modi- 


88  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 


fication,  viewed  as  any  thing  less  than  an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  common  formula  of  the  vertebrated  ani- 
mal. In  the  same  manner,  the  retention  of  the  ru- 
dimentary tail  is  an  expression  of  obedience  to  a  gen- 
eral concept  of  the  archetypal  vertebrate;  and,  with- 
out implying  any  necessary  genetic  relationship  to 
predecessors,  it  becomes  a  reminiscence  of  extinct 
forms,  and  proclaims  the  intellectual  unity  of  the  or- 
ganic w^orld. 

We  are  arofuingj  that  the  modifications  of  animals 
and  plants  have  regard  to  ideal  concepts.  AVe  have 
just  had  occasion  to  speak  of  ganoid  fishes  as  pro- 
phetic of  strictly  air-breathing  reptiles.  We  have 
heretofore  spoken  of  the  flying  saurians  of  the  olden 
time  as  prophetic  of  birds;  of  marine  saurians,  in  their 
structures  related  to  cetacean  mammals,  and  prophetic 
of  them;  and  cert.'un  land  saurians  as  similarly  pro- 
phetic of  mammals.  These  several  prophetic  types 
belong  to  a  more  generalized  category,  known  as  syn- 
thetic or  comprehensive  types.  It  was  the  character- 
istic of  a  synthetic  type  to  embody  features  which  af- 
terward became  differentiated  and  dissociated  in  two 
or  more  distinct  groups  of  species.  Thus  the  bony- 
armored  and  froo'-like  labvrinthodonts  became  dis- 
solved,  in  a  later  age,  into  two  groups  of  reptiles — the 
one,  bony-armored,  sauroid,  and  higher  in  rank ;  the 
other,  without  the  bony  armor,  but  retaining  the  frog- 


BEARING   UPON   TUElSiT.  89 

like  affinities,  and,  consequently,  lower  in  rank.  This 
may  serve  as  a  single  example  of  a  method  which 
was  general  in  the  progress  of  creation.  The  point 
which  we  desire  to  brins^  into  li^ht  is  this:  that  the 
very  idea  of  a  synthetic  type  implies  retrogression  on 
the  one  hand  or  the  other.  If  there  were  even  a  sj^n- 
thetized  type  in  which  the  two  or  more  components 
were  of  equal  rank,  the  very  supposition  implies  that 
the  synthetized  type,  bearing  the  aggregated  rank  of 
two  or  more  constituent  types,  was  superior  to  either; 
and  the  resolution  of  the  type  would  signalize  a  down- 
fall in  both  directions  instead  of  one.  Now,  while 
these  phenomena  must  be  viewed  as  exceptional  un- 
der any  law  of  derivative  development,  they  are  of 
a  nature  to  suggest  to  the  unsophisticated  mind  the 
existence  of  an  intelligible  method  —  that  of  advance 
through  synthetic  types  —  in  subordination  to  which 
either  the  ascendino;  or  descendins;  series  of  forms 
comes  into  existence. 

Theories  of  the  derivative  origin  of  species  repose 
great  stress  upon  the  phenomena  of  types  and  arche- 
types. Very  recently  the  horse  flmiily  {Eqiiida)  has 
been  made  to  play-a  very  conspicuous  role.  The  mod- 
ern horse,  as  anatomists  understand,  walks  upon  one 
toe;  but  there  is  a  pair  of  "splint  bones"  on  either 
side,  whose  lower  extremities  are  marked  by  the  place 
of  the  rough  callosities  of  the  horse's  fore  leg.     Some 


90  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

cycles  back,  in  the  Pliocene  Age,  existed,  in  the  Far 
West,  a  type  of  horses  {Hipimrion)  in  which  the  "  splint 
bones"  are  represented  by  real  hooflets,  like  the  two 
posterior  toes  of  the  ox  and  deer.  Still  farther  back, 
in  the  Miocene  Age,  existed  a  horse  type  {Hippotlie- 
TLum^  Protoliippus)  in  which  the  hooflets  were  repre- 
sented by  fully  developed  hoofs,  and  the  animal  had 
tliree  toes.  In  the  Eocene  Age,  still  older,  existed  a 
still  more  aberrant  type  {OroJnj^pus),  which  walked 
npon/owr  toes.  These  are  admirable  examples  of  a 
large  class  of  facts  which  have  been  amply  discussed 
by  Owen,  Haeckel,  Chapman,  and  others.  They  are 
exemplifications  and  demonstrations  of  what  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  style  bomological  relations.  We 
are  deeply  impressed  and  instructed  by  facts  of  this 
kind.  Wc  hail  them  as  proofs  of  a  regulative  intel- 
lio-ence  in  creation;  and  we  ascribe  them  to  intelli- 
gence  by  a  necessary  law  of  our  reason.  AVe  admit 
that  the  succession  is  an  evolutionary  one  in  a  large 
number  of  cases.  But  it  is  obvious  that  we  are  not 
compelled  to  recognize  a  genealogical  relationship  in 
the  succession ;  still  less  to  ascribe  it  to  physiological 
activities  uncontrolled  by  intelligence.  Let  us  trace 
a  parallel.  Here  is  the  gay  and  fashionable  "  lan- 
dau," one  of  the  most  finished  of  wheeled  vehicles. 
We  compare  it  with  the  "rockaway,"  and  discover 
the  two  to  be  homologucs.     Looking  back  in  time, 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  91 

"wc  perceive  the  farm-wagon  to  liave  been  once  the 
most  perfect  representative  of  the  idea  of  a  wheeled 
vehicle.  But  still  earlier,  or  at  least  lower  in  the  scale, 
stand  the  ox-cart  and  the  drav;  and  last  of  all  we 
come  to  the  wheelbarrow.  Now,  these  vehicles  rep- 
resent one  archetypal  idea  in  the  various  stages  of  its 
development;  they  sustain  homological  relations  to 
each  other,  co-existent  with  obvious  special  "  design  " 
in  the  adaptations  of  each  product.  But  who  w^ould 
think  it  necessary  to  regard  the  wheelbarrow  the  pro- 
genitor of  the  ox-cart  and  the  landau?  The  evolu- 
tionary relation  is  manifest,  but  each  term  of  the 
series  is  the  product  of  an  independent  act  of  intelli- 
gence. 

We  content  ourselves  with  two  further  statements 
drawn  from  the  field  of  physiological  activities.  If 
the  varied  or2:ans  of  higher  heinous  have  been  ac- 
quired  through  conative  efforts,  or  the  influence  of 
the  environment,  or  as  the  accidental  results  of  ex- 
traordinary births,  or  the  cumulative  products  of  suc- 
cessively accelerated  or  prolonged  development  in 
the  embryo,  then  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  ac- 
quisition of  certain  organs  with  the  requisite  degree 
of  suddenness.  The  earliest  trilobites,  for  instance, 
had  eyes  ready  formed,  but  had  no  ancestors  through 
whose  long-drawn  generations  they  could  have  been 
developed.      They  had   successors,  however,  which, 


92  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 

notwithstanding  the  undiminished  usefuhiess  of  eyes, 
and  the  undiminished  amount  of  light,  were  destitute 
of  those  important  organs.  It  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  on  any  of  these  hypotheses  the  fish,  when 
thrown  irrecoverably  out  of  his  native  element,  ac- 
quired the  lungs  of  an  air-breather  with  sufficient  ex- 
pedition to  save  him  from  perishing  in  the  very  first 
stage  of  his  transmutation.  Is  it  not  absolutely  de- 
monstrable that  lungs  must  have  been  fashioned  in 
anticipation  of  the  aerial  habitat  of  the  animal,  anterior 
to  the  possibility  of  any  influence  exerted  upon  him 
by  external  conditions? 

So,  when  the  transition  was  to  be  made  from  birds 
or  reptiles  to  animals  that  should  feed  their  young  by 
a  milky  secretion  from  their  own  bodies,  the  trans- 
formation must  have  been  made  complete,  toto  coelo,  in 
a  single  generation.  But  who  can  believe  that  any 
phvsical  or  physiological  influence  was  at  work  wdiich 
could  originate,  de  novo,  an  organ  so  peculiar  and  so 
w^idely  apart  from  any  structure  in  reptiles  or  birds 
as  the  mammary  gland,  and  could  originate  it  func- 
tionally complete  in  the  first  generation? 

(3)  Objections  in  the  Field  of  Metaphysics. — We  con- 
clude our  statement  of  tlie  difficulties  of  doctrines  of 
derivative  development  with  some  considerations 
drawn  from  the  field  of  abstract  ideas. 

A  physical  cause  is  a  definite  quantit}^,  and  can 


BEARING    UPON   THEISM.  93 

produce  but  a  definite  and  uniform  result;  but  ilie 
series  of  organic  forms  is  a  progressively  varying  re- 
sult. That  force  which  has  produced  the  phenomena 
of  organization  has  developed  an  infinitude  of  forms 
and  correlations  to  the  external  world  and  to  the  in- 
stincts and  necessities  of  animals,  and  to  ideal  plans 
of  structure  and  ideal  methods  of  activity.  It  has  be- 
haved as  no  material  force  has  ever  been  known  to 
behave.  It  has  developed  results  which  can  not  pos- 
sibly be  referred  to  any  common  category  except  that 
of  intelligent,  free  volition.  In  the  water  it  gives  one 
animal  lun^-s  and  another  skills.  Amono^  insect-eaters 
it  drives  one  with  the  requisite  equipment,  like  the 
bat,  to  seek  its  food  in  the  air;  another,  like  the  toad, 
on  the  land  ;  another,  like  the  mole,  in  the  soil.  It  is 
a  force  which  acts  with  discernment,  with  method, 
with  usefulness,  and  with  a  degree  of  independence 
of  the  co-operative  action  of  surrounding  physical  in- 
fluences. It  has  continued  to  act  along  unbroken 
lines  of  thought.  It  produced  the  pectoral  fin  of  a 
fish ;  then,  still  acting  on  the  organ,  produced  the  leg 
of  a  salamander  or  alligator;  then,  from  the  same  or- 
gan, the  wing  of  a  bird  or  bat,  the  fore  leg  of  a  horse, 
the  shovel  of  a  mole,  the  paddle  of  a  whale,  the  arm 
of  a  man.  Can  any  one  assert  that  this  is  the  mode 
of  action  of  a  physical  cause?  Physical  forces,  in- 
deed, have  been  the  instruments  which,  summoned 


94  EVOLUTIOX,  AND  ITS 

to  act  in  varying  ratio  to  each  other,  have  shaped  re- 
sults to  premeditated  ends. 

In  the  field  of  physical  forces  we  find  no  provision 
for  indefinite  progression,  but  only  for  movement  in 
cycles.  The  circle  of  the  waters  from  the  ocean 
through  the  clouds  to  the  ocean  again;  the  circle  of 
the  winds  in  the  heavens;  the  sweep  of  cosmical 
bodies  in  their  orbits;  the  precession  of  the  equi- 
noxes; the  variation  of  a  planet's  obliquity  to  the 
plane  of  its  orbit ;  the  waxing  and  waning  eccentric- 
ity of  their  orbits;  nay,  the  very  lifetime  of  a  system 
or  a  universe — these  are  all  but  periodical  phenom- 
ena in  varied  phases  of  magnitude.  But  the  march 
of  organic  improvement  has  been  ever  resultanlly  in 
one  direction.  There  have  been  deflections  and  par- 
tial regressions  to  points  at  which  the  march  has  ac- 
quired a  quicker  step;  but  never  has  the  world  of 
life  returned  to  a  former  status;  never  has  a  specific 
or  generic  type,  once  passed,  been  summoned  again 
into  being.  These  are  the  phenomena  of  a  force  act- 
ing in  a  manner  generically  different  from  those 
wliich  play  upon  the  theatre  of  physical  existence. 

There  exists  an  incongruity  between  natural  selec- 
tion, viewed  as  a  force,  and  the  results  which  are  at- 
tributed to  it.  Natural  selection  is  itself  a  result  co- 
ordinated with  a  certain  concurrence  of  physical  con- 
ditions.    If  we  recognize  it  as  a  result  produced  by 


BEARING   UPON  THEISil.  95 

those  conditions,  then,  since  the  result  must  be  con- 
generic with  the  cause,  we  must  view  natural  selection 
as  belonging  to  the  category  of  physical  causes.  It 
can,  therefore,  produce  but  one  category  of  results. 
It  can  not  manifest  any  of  that  deliberative,  co-ordi- 
native,  thoughtful  adjustment  to  situations  and  to 
archetypal  concepts  which  we  find  to  characterize 
the  phenomena  of  the  organic  world.  Assigned  as 
a  modifying  condition,  we  acknowledge  its  reality. 
Assigned  as  instrumental  means  of  accomplishing 
certain  premeditated  results,  we  concede  it  a  legiti- 
mate place.  Assigned  as  the  efficient  cause  of  results 
so  clearly  premeditated,  so  clearly  co-ordinated  in 
method,  so  expressive  of  the  overshadowing  presence 
of  a  co-ordinating  intelligence,  we  have  to  repudiate 
its  pretensions. 

The  incongruity  between  cause  assigned  and  results 
produced  is  infinitely  greater  stilL  Supposing  nat- 
ural selection  to  be  regarded  a  physical  force,  how 
vast  a  disparity  in  kind  between  the  force  and  the 
moral  and  intellectual  results  attributed  to  it!  T\\o 
struggle  for  existence  is  selfish  ;  how  could  it  develop 
generosity?  The  struggle  for  existence  excites  and 
nourishes  fear;  how  could  it  develop  a  loving  trust 
in  the  Ruler  of  the  universe?  The  struggle  for  ex- 
istence deals  with  material  wants  ;  how  can  it  awaken 
longings  for  inimoitality,  or  an  actual  faiih  in  future 


96  EVOLUTION,  AKD   ITS 

life?     How  can  it  arouse  the  consciousness  of  any 
spiritual  want,  or  beget  a  belief  in  spiritual  truth? 

But  the  deepest  fallacy  of  all  is  the  assumption  of 
natural  selection  as  a  cause.^  It  is  not  a  cause  at  all. 
It  is  only  a  set  of  conditions.  Selection  is  an  act  of 
mind,  and  the  selection  which  takes  place  in  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  is  a  method  of  intellio'ent  will. 
But  we  have  no  proof  that  this  is  a  method  by  which 
even  intelligent  will  ever  causes  a  transmutation  of 
species.  We  have  cited  many  proofs  opposed  to  this 
hvpothesis.  Neither  can  direct  physical  influences 
proceeding  from  the  environment  be  viewed  in  the 
light    of  efficient   causes    of  biological    phenomena. 

*  This  truth  has  been  recognized  by  Professor  Huxley  (Critiques 
and  Addresses  ;  Am.  edit,,  p.  270).  "On  this  hypothesis"  [that  the 
struggle  for  existence  is  maintained  among  the  molecules  of  the  or- 
ganism] "  hereditary  transmission  is  the  result  of  the  victory  of  par- 
ticular molecules  contained  in  the  impregnated  germ.  Adaptation  to 
conditions  is  the  result  of  the  favoring  of  the  multiplication  of  those 
molecules  whose  organizing  tendencies  are  most  in  harmony  with 
such  conditions.  In  this  view  of  the  matter,  conditions  are  not  act- 
ively productive,  but  are  passively  permissive;  they  do  not  cause 
variation  in  any  given  direction,  but  they  permit  and  favor  a  tendency 
in  that  direction  ivhich  already  exists."  Now,  what  is  the  urging 
force  in  that  tendency  ?  Mr.  Huxley,  in  another  paragraph,  states : 
"  The  tendency  to  vary  *  *  *  may  depend  wholly  upon  internal  con- 
ditions." Now,  tacitly  accepting  this  as  Huxleyisra,  and  not  Darwin- 
ism, we  should  like  to  know  if  Mr.  Huxley  regards  a  conditioning  in- 
fluence as  a  real  cause  ? 


BEAEIXG   UPON   THEISM.  97 

They  are  only  a  set  of  conditions ;  we  may  denomi- 
nate them  conditioning  causes,  but  this  implies  an  ef- 
ficient cause.  The  efficient  cause  must  act  in  the 
organism.  Blood  and  nervous  influences  must  be 
sent  in  such  directions  as  to  respond  to  the  presence 
of  the  physical  impression.  Yital  forces  must  per- 
form the  work,  even  if  they  do  it  in  deference  to  sug- 
gestions from  without.  The  conception  of  the  phys- 
ical environment  as  moulding  the  organs  of  animals 
is  philosophic  absurdity.  In  the  actual  world  it  is 
"  unthinkable."  Nor  can  we  entertain  the  possibil- 
ity that  the  vital  forces  are  mere  activities  of  chem- 
istry and  physics.  "We  have  said  such  activities  move 
in  circles,  and  that  they  can  only  produce  physic- 
al results;  while  the  results  which  we  witness  are 
thought,  conscience,  volition,  emotion,  correlation  to 
ideal  concepts.  A  correlation  between  physical  and 
vital  force  is  obvious,  though  we  deny  their  equiv- 
alence. The  efficient  force  producing  modifications 
having  reference  to  physical  surroundings,  is  not  only 
a  force  actinof  within;  it  is  a  force  actinf]^  intelli- 
gently  and  beneficently ;  and  if  it  be  demanded  how 
we  dare  attribute  intelligence  and  beneficence  to  a 
force  so  hopelessly  inscrutable,  we  demand  of  the  ob- 
jector how  he  dare  dishonor  the  deepest  intuitions 
of  his  own  soul,  and  brave  all  the  consequences  of  so 
doing? 


98  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

There  only  remains  a  single  thought;  and  this,  it 
seems  to  us,  presents  a  difficulty  as  formidable  as  can 
be  imagined  in  the  way  of  the  Darwinist.  That  this 
theor}^  may  be  true  and  sufficient,  it  must  provide 
for  the  appearance  of  improved  forms,  not  alone 
in  single  individuals  or  single  pairs,  but  simultane- 
ously in  large  numbers  of  individuals.  Imagine  an  in- 
dividual, or,  if  it  be  possible,  a  pair  of  individuals, 
endowed  with  a  certain  improvement  in  organization. 
Now,  if  they  happen  to  appear  in  the  same  region, 
which  may  be  probable,  and,  if  they  happen  to  pair 
together  instead  of  with  the  more  numerous  individ- 
uals having  the  unimproved  organization,  it  is  true 
their  offspring  may  inherit  their  peculiar  organization. 
And  then,  if  the  offspring  continue  to  pair  together 
through  future  generations,  there  is  a  conceivable  pos- 
sibility of  the  advance  being  perpetuated.  But  how 
much  more  probable  that  but  one  individual  should 
come  into  possession  of  a  given  new  conformation ; 
and  that  by  crossing  and  recrossing  with  individuals 
not  possessing  it,  the  peculiarity  should  disappear. 
And  if  a  couple  of  individuals  should  happen  to  be 
identically  gifted,  and  they  should  pair  together,  all 
experience  teaches  that  their  offspring  would  show  a 
tendency  to  revert  to  the  old  form.  And  if  their  off- 
spring should  show  no  sucli  tendency,  how  great  the 
probability  that  they  would  pair  with  individuals  not 


BEARING  UrON  THEISM.  99 

having  the  peculiarity;  and  that  thus  the  peculiarity, 
by  the  laws  of  hybridity,  would  rapidly  disappear. 

The  only  possible  way  of  escaping  the  necessity  of 
braving  this  array  of  strong  improbabilities  is  to  re- 
sort to  the  assumption  that  a  large  number  of  individ- 
uals became  simultaneously  affected  in  a  similar  w\ay ; 
and  then,  in  addition,  to  assume  that  such  variation 
would  be  permanent;  and  that,  sooner  or  later,  an- 
other variation  in  the  same  direction  would  take  place 
in  a  larG^e  number  of  the  descendants  of  these  indi- 
viduals;  and  that  this  extraordinary  concurrence  of 
conditions  w^ould  continue  to  be  repeated  through 
thousands  of  generations  and  thousands  of  years,  un- 
til the  variation  should  amount  to  a  new  specific  form. 
It  seems  to  us,  the  Darwinist  is  here  placed  in  an  ap- 
palling dilemma,  and  that  the  only  rescue  is  in  pre- 
cipitate retreat.* 

In  offering  this  array  of  difficulties  which  the  the- 
ory of  derivative  evolution  of  organic  beings  must  en- 
counter and  vanquish,  we  have  not  taken  the  time  to 
indicate  in  each  case  against  wdiat  phase  of  the  doc- 
trine the  difficulty  more  especially  presses.  We  think 
it  proper,  therefore,  to  state,  in  general,  tliat  all  the 
objections  seem  to  be  valid  against  those  forms  of  the 
doctrine  which  assume  a  gradual  variation,  involving 

♦  See  North  British  Review^  June,  1867,  p.  286. 


100  EVOLUTION",  A^D   ITS 

vast  periods  of  time,  and  necessitating  the  interven- 
tion of  all  conceivable  intermediate  links.  That  is^ 
they  all  rest  against  the  theories  which  appeal  solely 
to  external  influences,  like  those  of  De  Maillet  and 
Darwin ;  or  to  external  influences  supplemented  by 
internal  conative  efforts,  like  Lamarckianism ;  or  to 
progressive  changes  through  prolonged  or  accelerated 
development  of  the  embryo,  like  the  teaching  of  the 
"Vestiges,"  and  of  Cope  and  Hyatt.  That  form  of 
the  doctrine  held  by  Parsons  and  Mivart,  and  per- 
haps also  by  Huxley,  admitting  of  progress  by  con- 
siderable leaps,  escapes  measurably  from  the  embar- 
rassment of  supplying  complete  series  of  intermediate 
forms.  Those  theories  which  appeal  to  the  possible 
incidents  of  the  generative  process  seem  to  be  less 
vulnerable  than  those  w^hich  assiQ:n  a  set  of  external 
conditions  as  the  efficient  cause  of  organic  modifica- 
tions.  The  principle  of  natural  selection,  or  survival 
of  the  fittest,  it  ought  to  be  remarked,  though  inade- 
quate to  account  for  the  origin  of  new  forms,  may  be 
legitimately  appealed  to  for  their  preservation  when 
produced  by  any  adequate  means.  Viewing  specific 
types  as  absolutely  constant,  with  a  limited  elasticity, 
it  may  undoubtedly  be  regarded  the  principle  of  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  which  maintains  the  s]3ecies  at  the 
normal  standard  of  healthful  vigor. 


BEARING   UPON  THEIS^I.  101 

V.  Spontaneous  Generation. 

A  few  statements  seem  to  be  demanded  in  refer- 
ence to  the  hypothesis  of  spontaneous  generation — 
Ileterogenesis,  Abiogenesis,  or  Archcgenesis.  This 
hypothesis  should  not  be  regarded  as  necessarily  in- 
volved in  that  of  the  derivative  origin  of  specific 
forms.  The  latter  is  simply  an  attempt  to  explain 
how  specific  forms  may  have  descended  from  one  or 
more  primitive  stocks.  It  assumes  organization  ex- 
istent as  a  postulate.  The  gap  between  vitalized  or- 
ganization, however  simple,  and  dead  inorganization 
is  vastly  greater  than  that  between  the  summit  and 
the  base  of  the  organic  series.  None  of  the  reason- 
ings of  derivationists  apply  to  the  task  of  filling  this 
gap.  They  may  prove  unimpeachably  valid  within 
the  domain  of  organization,  where  we  have  an  abut- 
ment of  life  on  each  side  of  the  chasm  to  be  bridged, 
and  remain  completely  inapplicable  wdiere  the  chasm 
presents,  on  one  side,  no  such  support.  The  advo- 
cates of  derivative  theories  have  not  generally  avowed 
sympathy  wnth  the  hypothesis  of  archcgenesis.  They 
have,  indeed,  generally  repudiated  it. 

The  opponents  of  these  theories  have  illogically  at- 
tributed to  them  a  belief  in  archcgenesis,  as  a  neces- 
sary consequence.  If  we  can  trace  a  genealogical 
connection  from  man,  step  by  step,  to  the  monad,  it  is 


102  EYOLUTIOX,  AND  ITS 

but  one  step  further,  they  say,  to  dead  matter.  We 
admit  it ;  but  it  is  like  the  step  which  Milton's  Satan 
took  in  his  descent  from  heaven  to  hell.  Monad  life 
and  no  life  are  as  far  apart  as  affirmation  and  nega- 
tion. Whether  the  doctrine  of  archegenesis  be  sus- 
tained by  fLicts,  is  an  independent  question  to  be  de- 
cided. To  its  solution  many  skilled  experimenters 
are  assiduously  applying  themselves;  and  opinion 
seems  to  be  held  in  a  balance  between  conflicting  evi- 
dences. The  immediate  subject  of  controversy  is  the 
origin  of  the  organisms  which  make  their  appearance 
in  infusions  of  organic  substances  from  which  efforts 
have  been  made  to  exclude  the  germs  which  float  in 
the  air.  The  difficulties  seem  to  be,  to  know  certain- 
ly what  degree  of  heat  suffices  to  destroy  the  life  of 
all  germs;  to  be  certain  that  the  filtering  substances 
employed  in  some  experiments  are  sufficiently  fine 
to  exclude  the  smallest;  and  to  know  that  the  non- 
appearance of  life,  in  certain  cases,  is  not  due  to  the 
absence  of  certain  conditions,  rather  than  the  success- 
ful occlusion  of  living  germs. 

The  experiments  have  resulted  in  revealing  sev- 
eral interesting  facts  belonging  to  the  wonders  of  na- 
ture. The  atmosphere  and  many  liquid  and  solid 
substances  are  populated  by  innumerable  swarms  of 
living  spores,  which  give  rise  to  the  phenomena  of 
fermentation,  putrefaction,  and  many  forms  of  disease. 


BEARING  UPON  THEISM.     '  103 

Some  of  these  spores  are  so  inconceivably  small  as  to 
permeate  the  finest  filters  and  elude  the  highest  pow- 
ers of  the  microscope.  Many  of  them  possess  such 
tenacity  of  life  as  to  remain  unchanged  at  tempera- 
tures far  above  the  boiling  point  of  water ;  while  some 
of  the  minutest  organisms  may  be  completely  desic- 
cated at  high  temperatures,  kept  for  months  in  such 
condition,  and  then  revived  by  the  application  of 
moisture. 

Should  spontaneous  generation  (so  called)  ever  be- 
come established  as  a  mode  of  origin  of  primitive 
forms,  that  would  not  invalidate  the  reasoning  which 
proves  existent  in  organization  a  mode  of  energy 
generically  different  from  that  which  produces  mere 
physical  results.  All  the  phenomena  of  life  still  ex- 
ist, with  the  same  demands  upon  him  who  attempts 
to  interpret  them.  AVe  should  have  the  same  evi- 
dence of  the  operation  of  what  we  style  vital  force, 
and  no  more  evidence  that  it  is  congeneric  with  phys- 
ical force,  or  begotten  by  it,  "We  should  still  demand 
what  constitutes  the  essential  difference  between  two 
germs  which  the  nicest  microscopic  study  can  not  dis- 
criminate, but  wdiich  are  so  antipodally  diverse  that 
one  develops  into  a  sea-weed  and  the  other  into  an 
animal ;  or  between  two  undistinguishable  ovarian 
eggs  so  fundamentally  unlike  that  one  becomes  a 
horse  and  the  other  a  man? 


104  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 


YI.  Theistic  Bearings  of  the  Doctrine  of 

Evolution. 

It  constitutes  an  important  part  of  our  proposed 
discussion  to  advert  to  the  bearings  of  development 
theories  upon  theistic  belief.  This  is  a  subject  which 
we  approach  with  a  degree  of  composure  w^hich,  it  is 
hoped,  wmU  not  be  misinterpreted.  We  can  not  deny 
that  an  opinion  is  prevalent  that  these  doctrines  lead 
directly  to  materialism  and  atheism.  "We  can  not 
deny  that  many  persons  of  the  unreasoning  sort  have 
eagerly  seized  hold  of  these  theories  to  console  them- 
selves in  the  indulgence  of  the  God-denying  deprav- 
ity of  their  hearts.  ISTor  will  we  deny  that  here  and 
there  a  mind  accustomed  to  the  methods  of  patient 
investigation  has  given  utterance  to  the  opinion  that 
there  is  no  God  but  force;  no  God  but  matter;  no 
source  of  matter,  force,  or  motion  which  lies  within 
the  compass  of  the  knowable.  Now,  it  is  not  need- 
ful to  assert  that  the  real  opinions  of  such  philoso- 
phers and  scientists  may  have  been  misunderstood. 
We  will  arraign  the  affectation  of  some  of  them,  how- 
ever, w^ho,  wdiile  hinting  that  they  hold  a  theistic 
faith,  scorn  the  admission  that  this  is  any  thing  with 
which  science  or  scientific  men,  as  such,  have  any 
concern.  If  they  can  not,  as  devotees  of  physical  sci- 
ence, distinctly  avow  a  theistic  faith,  it  would  not  im- 


BEAEIXG   UPON  THEISM.  105 

pair  their  scientific  powers  to  avow  such  failh  in  the 
capacity  o^men. 

[N'otwithstanding  charges  and  admissions  of  infidel- 
ity as  a  sequel  to  faith  in  evolution,  and  notwithstand- 
ing our  own  denial  that  the  derivative  origin  of  spe- 
cies has  been  established  as  a  fact,  we  have  a  profound 
conviction  that  the  being  and  providence  of  a  personal 
God  are  to  no  extent  imperiled  by  the  admission  of 
the  reality  of  any  form  of  evolution  wdiich  does  not 
expressly  posit  its  initial  point  in  unintelligence.  A 
form  of  evolutionary  belief  postulating  such  a  source 
of  being  we  deliberately  pronounce  an  absurdity  ab- 
solutely incapable  of  propagation,  since  the  universal 
reason  rises  up  in  rebellion  against  it.  That  any  form 
of  evolutionary  doctrine  now  current  in  the  world  is 
compatible  with  a  devout  recognition  of  the  being  and 
providence  of  God,  w^e  hope  to  be  able  to  demonstrate. 

1.  Of  Evolution  in  the  Plujsical  World. 

Let  us  look  first  at  the  consequences  of  evolution 
in  the  physical  world.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  prop- 
osition is  firmly  established  that  the  whole  material 
history  of  worlds  is  a  mere  evolution  of  phenome- 
na under  the  activity  of  energies  which  we  call  the 
forces  of  nature.  Two  conclusions  are  certain  at 
the  outset:  1.  The  course  of  this  evolution  is  finite. 
It  is  an  evolution  which  we  trace  to  an  absolute  be- 

5^ 


106  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 

ginning  in  finite  time,  and  it  is  also  one  which  can  be 
traced  to  an  absolute  conclusion  "within  finite  time. 
The  organism  of  the  universe,  therefore,  is  not  eter- 
nal, and  demands  a  power  superior  to  itself  to  origi- 
nate and  conserve  it.*  2.  It  is  not  a  self-inaugurated 
and  self-sustaining  evolution.  It  does  not  supply  us 
with  a  beginning  in  ultimate  causation.  It  reveals 
no  absolute  initial  point  on  which  reason  can  rest 
satisfied.  Science  conducts  us  back  in  the  history 
of  a  world  'to  a  primitive  incandescent  vapor.  She 
calls  that  a  beginning;  and  may  assert  that  every 
physical  event  of  a  hundred  millions  of  ages  existed 
potentially  in  that.  But  this  is  really  no  explana- 
tion of  the  ultimate  and  only  real  cause  of  any  thing. 
Eeason  demands  the  cause  of  this  beginning.  What 
w^ere  the  antecedents  of  the  cosmical  vapor?  In  the 
absence  of  antecedents,  what  was  the  cause  of  this 
fire-mist — of  these  forces  active  in  it? 

Now  these  are  questions  of  which  Keason  demands 
an  answer.  She  will  never  be  satisfied  till  the  answer 
is  given.     But  physical  science  can  trace  the  thread 


*  This  and  the  following  views  have  been  urged  by  the  writer  for 
seventeen  years  or  more.  See  a  lecture  entitled  Theologico-Geology, 
published  March,  1857,  and  one  entitled  Creation  the  Work  qf  One 
Intelligence^  published  March,  1858 ;  also,  Mich.  Jour,  of  Education^ 
May,  1858;  Ladies'  Repository,  1802-63-,  Sketches  of  Creation,  1870; 
Geology  of  the  Stars,  1873;  Methodist  Quar.  Rev.,  1874,  etc. 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  107 

no  further  back,  and  must  be  dumb  to  all  ulterior  in- 
quiries. It  is  true,  then,  as  physicists  assert,  tliat 
their  sciences  do  not  mount  actually  to  God.  But 
Eeason  ignores  the  name  of  the  highway  over  which 
she  ascends,  and  if  she  fails  to  reach  primordial  causa- 
tion over  the  road  which  you  designate  science,  she 
presses  on  over  the  highway  beyond,  wdiich  you 
may  designate  philosophy  or  intuition.  She  must 
have  a  first  cause — a  cause  of  matter  and  of  force. 
Now,  whether  we  be  able  ever  to  thread  the  history 
of  matter  back  to  any  remoter  beginning  or  not,  Eea- 
son affirms  that  back  of  the  initial  point  of  the  suc- 
cession of  physical  phases,  was  adequate,  ultimate,  ef- 
ficient causation.  This  is  one  of  the  clearest  and 
strongest  intuitions  of  the  human  soul,  ^fatter  and 
force  are  not  self- existent,  but  created.  Simultane- 
ously with  this  verdict  rises  another  universal  and 
ineradicable,  and,  therefore,  necessary  instinct  of  hu- 
manity—  the  intuition  o^ primordial  causation  —  self- 
existent,  intelligent,  and  eternal.  Now  Science,  in  con- 
fessing her  inability  to  reach  this  conception,  abandons 
the  field  for  the  soul's  witness,  Eeason,  with  her  clear 
adamantine  utterances,  to  step  in  and  answer  the  last 
inquiries..  Science,  we  say,  virtually  beckons  to  p])i- 
losophy  to  come  to  her  aid  ;  and  when  philosophy 
draws  aside  the  veil  wdiich  separates  between  sj^irit 
and  matter,  science  has  no  ''bill  of  exceptions"  to 


108  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

file.  This  evolutionary  ferment  is  one,  then,  ■which 
began  with  God.  Bereshitli  hara  Elohim.  Every  in- 
cident of  the  history  runs  back  to  God  as  its  orisina- 
tor  and  real  cause.  What  a  picture  of  the  wisdom 
and  power  of  God  does  this  lowest  conception  of  his 
relation  to  the  universe  present  1  Viewed  only  as  a 
machine  which  runs  on  through  chiliads  of  centuries 
how  stupendous  is  the  mechanism  !  What  grasp  of 
intellect  in  its  Author! 

But  we  have  no  sufficient  ground  for  placing  Deity 
in  this  distant,  though  causal,  relation  to  his  universe. 
What  are  these  energies  which  we  style  the  forces  of 
matter,  and  which  we  discover  active  in  matter  in  its 
incipiency  and  along  the  entire  course  of  its  evolu- 
tions? We  sometimes  speak  of  them  as  energies  res- 
ident in  matter,  and  inherent  in  it,  and  acting  without 
intelligence  or  volition ;  but  a  close  examination  re- 
veals the  unphilosophical  character  of  such  concep- 
tions. There  is  not  a  shadow  of  evidence  that  active 
force  is  or  can  be  an  attribute  of  matter.  On  the  con- 
trary, all  our  knowledge  of  force  presents  it  as  an  ef- 
fort of  intelligent  will.  We  have  no  knowledge  of 
the  origin  of  any  force,  save  of  that  which  emanates 
from  human  volition.  In  the  human  sphere,  in  which 
we. are  able  to  trace  effects  to  their  first  causes,  we  in- 
variably find  the  initial  energy  exerted  by  intelligent 
will.     The  sphere  of  creation  presents  an  array  of 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  109 

mechanical  effects  not  distinguished  qualitatively  from 
those  which  flow  from  human  volition ;  and  wc  can 
not,  without  violence  to  our  intuitions,  refer  them  to 
a  different  category  of  causation.  We  are  driven  by 
the  necessary  laws  of  thought  to  pronounce  those  en- 
ergies styled  gravitation,  heat,  chemical  aflftnity,  and 
their  correlates,  nothing  less  than  the  energies  of  in- 
telligent will.  But  as  it  is  not  human  will  which  en- 
ergizes in  the  whirlwind  and  the  comet,  it  must  be 
the  Divine  Will.  It  is  God^s  present  power  and  voli- 
tion which  draws  the  apple  to  the  ground  and  bal- 
ances the  planet  in  its  orbit.  Science  has  long  tended 
toward  the  synthesis  of  the  forces  which  it  recognizes 
in  matter,  and  all  have  been  pronounced  but  forms 
of  a  single  force.  It  only  remained  for  her  to  dis- 
cover the  nature  of  the  one  protean,  panurgic  energy  ; 
and  the  suggestion  has  come  from  the  ranks  of  science 
itself  that  this  is  simply  the  Divine  Intelligent  Will. 
Philosophy  will  not  recoil  from  a  suggestion  which 
she  has  so  long  preserved  in  the  royal  archives  of 
thought;  and  we  regard  this  common  datum,  elimi- 
nated identically  from  the  factors  of  phj'sics  and  of 
metaphysics,  as  the  long  desiderated  "  reconciliation 
between  Religion  and  Science,"  after  which  we  have 
seen  Mr.  Spencer  groping  with  a  result  so  little  com- 
forting to  our  intuitions.  Wc  come  back,  then,  after 
journeying  over  the  long,  circuitous,  and  weary  high- 


110  EVOLUTION,  AND   ITS 


ways  of  science,  to  tbe  very  spot  where  Abraham  and 
Moses  and  Joshua  stood  in  the  infancy  of  our  race, 
and  witness  the  light  of  the  divine  presence  beaming 
all  around  us,  permeating  nature,  and  bringing  man 
into  near  and  awe-inspiring  and  tender  relations  to 
his  Father  and  his  God. 

All  this  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in  the  physical 
world  permits,  sanctions,  and  almost  demands. 

2.  Of  Evolution  in  the  Organic  World. 

But  what  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in  the  realm 
of  life?  We  are  compelled  to  recognize  the  fact  of 
such  a  succession  of  oi'ganic  forms  as  constitutes,  on 
the  whole,  an  evolution.  Now,  viewing  the  phenom- 
ena abstracted  from  any  theory  of  their  cause,  this 
developmental  relation  exhibits  a  scene  of  harmonies 
and  correlations  which  bespeak  a  co-ordinating  intel- 
ligence as  vast  as  time  and  space.  The  unity  of  the 
system  of  facts  demonstrates  a  unity  in  the  directive 
intelligence.  It  demonstrates  an  anticipation  of  the 
end  from  the  beginning — an  inauguration  and  prose- 
cution of  intelligible  plans  through  all  the  history  of 
organic  life,  in  all  lands  and  all  seas  and  all  condi- 
tions of  existence.  It  betrays  an  anticipation  of  man, 
and  a  sj^stem  of  beneficent  preparations  for  man.  It 
is  a  sublime  and  ever  varying,  but  alwaj^s  harmoni- 
ous spectacle  of  the  manifested  power,  intelligence, 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  Ill 

goodness,  unity,  and  eternity  of  a  Personal  Existence. 
The  more  firmly  we  establish  the  fact  of  an  evolution- 
ary relationship  in  the  history  of  organic  forms,  the 
more  convincingly  do  we  establish  the  exercise  of 
these  divine  attributes. 

But  suppose  the  old  doctrine  of  specific  creations 
to  become  untenable,  and  the  doctrine  of  a  genealogic- 
al succession  and  connection  of  organic  beings  to  be 
established  in  its  place.  Suppose  it  is  convincingly 
proven,  by -and -by,  that  man  is  descended  from  a 
monkey,  or  an  ascidian,  or  a  monad.  What  have  we 
to  say?  1.  The  fact  of  the  unity  of  organic  history 
will  of  course  remain  firmly  established ;  and  w^e 
shall  have  all  the  same  facts  of  correlation  and  co- 
adjustment,  and  the  same  necessary  evidences  of  the 
exercise  of  intelligence  and  other  attributes.  This 
deduction  is  wholly  independent  of  the  instrumental 
causes  of  these  correlations.  The  facts  of  correlation 
and  contrivance  exist,  and  reason  impels  us  to  deduce 
intelligence;  and  no  system  of  instrumental  causa- 
tion can  be  less  than  a  dethronement  of  reason  which 
attempts  to  negative  this  necessary  and  universal 
deduction.  However  this  evolutionary  relationship 
has  been  brought  about,  it  always  means  the  same  to 
human  intelligence.  2.  When,  according  to  our  hy- 
pothesis, this  doctrine  becomes  proven,  it  will  be  futile 
to  contend  against  it.     If  the  evidences  sustain  it, 


112  EVOLUTIOX,  AND   ITS 


mankind  can  not  be  prevented  from  believing  it.  If 
the  evidences  sustain  it,  and  the  general  sentiment  of 
the  scientific  world  accepts  and  indorses  it,  we  may 
safely  regard  it  as  standing  for  a  truth  in  nature; 
or,  at  least,  as  more  probably  standing  for  truth  than 
the  dissent — perhaps  unenlightened  dissent — of  a  few 
individuals.  As  truth,  it  becomes  the  common  ob- 
ject of  all  honest  search ;  and  to  reject  it  is  not  only 
to  insult  the  truth  but  to  defraud  ourselves.  Nay,  if 
it  be  truth,  it  is  God's  truth,  and  to  reject  it  supersti- 
tiously  or  unreasoningly  is  an  insult  to  the  Author 
of  truth.  We  incur  greater  danger  of  doing  violence 
to  truth  by  rejecting  the  general  verdict  of  science 
than  by  devoutly  accepting  it. 

We  can  not  but  regret  the  utterances  of  some  of 
the  opponents  of  the  doctrine  of  the  evolution  of  life 
and  the  derivation  of  species.  It  pains  us  to  see  rep- 
utable scientific  writers  substituting  hateful  names 
and  wry  faces  for  cool  argument.  In  this  respect  we 
regard  Dr.  Dawson's  late  w^ork  as  not  above  reproach. 
The  greater  sins  of  Huxley  and  Ilaeckel  and  lesser 
lights  do  not  condone  the  errors  of  any  scientific  ad- 
vocate who  slips  from  the  "straight  and  narrow" 
path  of  logical  argumentation.  Neither  can  we  ac- 
quiesce in  the  position  of  so  logical  a  reasoner  as 
President  Barnard,  when  he  maintains  that  it  is  bet- 
ter to  close  one's  eyes  to  the  evidences  than  to  be 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  113 

convinced  of  the  truth  of  certain  doctrines  wliicli  he 
regards  as  subversive  of  the  fundamentals  of  Christian 
faith.  "Much  as  I  love  truth  in  the  abstract,"  he 
says,  "I  love  my  hope  of  immortality  more.  '^  '''  * 
If  this,  after  all,  is  the  best  that  science  can  give  me, 
give  me,  then,  I  pray,  no  more  science.  Let  me  live 
on  in  my  simple  ignorance,  as  my  fathers  lived  before 
me;  and  when  I  shall  at  length  be  summoned  to  my 
final  repose,  let  me  still  be  able  to  fold  the  drapery  of 
my  couch  about  me  and  lie  down  to  pleasant,  even 
though  they  be  deceitful,  dreams."'^  We  can  all  sure- 
ly sympathize  with  the  impulse  which  prompts  such 
language,  and  we  need  not  overlook  the  "if"  on 
which  the  alternative  depends ;  but  we  think  it  is  a 
higher  aspiration  to  wish  to  know  "the  truth  and  the 
whole  truth."  At  the  same  time,  we  have  not  the 
slightest  apprehension  that  "the  whole  truth"  can 
ever  dissipate  our  faith  in  the  future  life.  There  are 
certain  fundamental  religious  beliefs  which  no  pos- 
sible evidence  can  overthrow.  They  rest  upon  the 
irrefragable  authority  of  the  universal  intuitions  of 
the  human  reason.  The  firmest  conclusions  of  sci- 
ence can  rest  on  authority  no  higher.  Nay,  this  is 
the  very  authority  on  which  they  all  ultimately  stand. 

♦  Bainaid,  F.  A.  P.  :    The  Law  of  Disease,  in  "  College  Couiant,'' 
vol.  xiv.,  p.  27. 


114  •       EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

Now,  as  no  person  can  believe  that  two  necessary 
truths  will  ever  appear  in  conflict  with  each  other,  it 
necessarily  follows  that  these  religious  beliefs  can  nev- 
er be  successfully  impugned,  and  that  we  may  fold 
our  arms  and  smile  placidly  at  any  movement  of  sci- 
ence which  seems  to  be  directed  against  them. 

Suppose,  then,  the  time  should  come  when  we 
should  feel  bound  by  the  dictates  of  reason  and  of 
science  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  derivative  evolu- 
tion of  organic  types,  would  that  necessarily  subvert 
any  fundamental  doctrine  which  we  have  received 
from  our  sacred  Scriptures?  We  answer  deliberate- 
ly and  confidently,  ISTo;  and  we  will  define,  in  brief, 
the  grounds  on  which  we  stand :  1.  The  authority  of 
those  Scriptures  has  been  fully  vindicated  by  the  rev- 
elations of  history,  languages,  ethnology,  archaeol- 
ogy, and  science,  and  we  have  a  priori  ground  for 
asserting  that  their  veracity  will  continue  to  be  vin- 
dicated ;  2.  If,  then,  they  are  the  utterances  of  God's 
truth,  they  must  harmonize  with  any  other  utterance 
of  God's  truth. 

But  we  do  not  rely  solely  upon  these  abstract,  de- 
ductive propositions.  We  bring  the  specific  points 
of  comparison  directly  into  the  light  of  investigation, 
and  demand,  what  must  follow  from  the  established 
fact,  that  the  admitted  developmental  succession  of 
organic  types  has  been  realized  through  the  operation 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  115 

of  secondary  causes.  When  we  look  the  problem 
squarely  in  the  face  we  smile  in  amazement  that  it 
has  seemed  necessary  to  propound  it.  Is  it  less  cred- 
ible that  man  as  a  species  should  have  been  devel- 
oped, by  secondary  causes,  from  an  ape,  than  that  by 
such  means  man  as  an  individual  should  rise  from  a 
new-born  babe  or  a  primitive  ovum  ?  It  is  no  more 
derogatory  to  man's  dignity  to  have  been,  at  some 
former  period,  an  ape  than  to  have  been  that  red 
lump  of  mere  flesh  which  we  call  a  human  infant. 
And  if  the  means  by  which  the  babe  has  developed 
into  a  man  do  not,  to  the  common  mind,  seem  to  ex- 
clude Deity  from  the  process,  why  should  we  feel  that 
Deity  is  necessarily  excluded  from  a  similar  process 
in  leading  man  up  from  the  monkey  ?  No  reason  can 
be  assigned.  If  you  say  that  the  babe  is  the  man  in 
potentiality,  so  may  it  be  replied  that  the  monkey  is 
the  man  in  potentiality — and  so  the  quadruped,  the 
reptile,  or  the  fish.  It  does  not  exclude  divine  agency 
from  the  work  of  organic  advancement  to  assume  that 
it  has  been  effected  through  the  reproductive  and  oth- 
er physiological  processes.  The  Creator  no  less  made 
man  if  he  caused  him  to  be  derived  by  descent  from 
an  orang-outang.  Man's  structural  organism  stands 
in  a  relation  of  affinity  to  that  of  the  monkey,  which 
is  rendered  no  more  intimate  or  absolute  by  tlie  ad- 
mission that  they  belong  to  the  same  genealogical 


116  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

tree;  and  man's  intellectual  and  moral  superiority  is 
just  as  emphatic  and  distinguishing,  and  just  as  much 
a  divine  inbreathing,  as  if  it  were  the  crowning  grace 
of  an  organism  which  could  not  illustrate  one  plan 
and  one  intelligence  in  the  whole  creation.  If  spe- 
cific tj'pes  came  into  being  derivatively,  the  utmost 
that  can  be  said  is  that  this  was  the  divine  method 
of  creating. 

"We  can  not  logically  hesitate  to  entertain  similar 
views  in  reference  to  the  hypothesis  of  spontaneous 
generation,  or,  more  accurately,  of  archegenesis.  Shall 
it  be  proven  that  organization  comes  forth  from  cer- 
tain forms  and  conditions  of  dead  matter,  we  shall 
simply  say  that  this  is  the  divine  method  of  creating. 
And  when  we  can  finally  look  upon  the  living,  con- 
scious, moving  being  rising  above  the  horizon  of  ex- 
istence,  we  shall  feel  awed  at  the  spectacle,  and  ac- 
knowledge ourselves  brought  into  the  nearer,  visible 
presence  of  creative  Divinity. 

All  we  seek  is  the  truth.  All  truth  is  God's  truth, 
and  the  most  devout  act  is  the  hearty  acceptance  of 
truth.  So  thought  the  theists  of  antiquity,  who,  like 
Anaxagoras,"^  Piiny,  and  Plutarch,  held  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  certain  forms  of  life  from  dead  matter.     So 


*  Diogenes  Laertius:  Lives.    Bohn's  edit.,  Anax.,  iv.    Pliny  says: 
*' Convolvulus  tirocinium  nature  lilium  formare  discentis." 


BEARING   UPON   THEISM.  117 

thought  the  priests  of  the  Middle  Ages,  who  held,  with 
the  philosophers,  that  many  of  the  simpler  forms  of 
animals  and  plants  were  generated  directly  from 
earthy  slime  and  fermenting  substances.  So  thought 
Moses,  apparently,  when  he  wrote,  in  speaking  of  the 
first  appearance  of  vegetation,  that  "the  earth  brought 
forth  grass;"  and  when,  in  speaking  of  the  advent  of 
marine  creatures  and  terrestrial  animals,  that  "the 
waters  brought  them  forth,"  and  "  the  earth  brought 
them  forth."  As  if  to  render  it  intelligible  that  this 
method  of  creation  does  not  preclude  the  idea  of  God, 
the  historian  tells  us  that  "  God  said,  let  the  earth 
brinof  forth  the  livinc!^  creature  *  "  *  and  it  was  so." 
That,  then,  was  God's  method  of  creating.  This  seems 
like  the  best  evidence  we  have  in  suj^port  of  the  doc- 
trine of  archegenesis. 

In  the  position  which  we  have  assumed  respecting 
the  theistic  bearing  of  doctrines  of  evolution,  we  might 
quote  an  indefinite  amount  of  concurring  testimon}^ 
It  was  the  opinion  of  St.  Augustine  that  God  created 
by  conferring  on  the  material  world  the  power  to 
evolve  organization.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  quotes 
with  approval  the  saying  of  St.  Augustine,  that  in 
the  first  institution  of  nature  we  do  not  look  for  mir- 
acles, but  for  the  laws  of  nature;  and  that  the  kinds  of 
animals  and  plants  were  only  created  derivatively — 
poienlialiter   iantum.     Cornelius  a   Lnpide  contends 


118  EVOLUTION,  AND  ITS 

that  at  least  certain  animals  were  not  absolutely  but 
only  derivatively  created.*  Buchanan,  speaking  of 
physical  evolution,  wrote,  as  long  ago  as  1859,  that 
if  it  were  established  it  would  not  follow  from  this, 
as  a  necessary  consequence,  "  that  the  peculiar  evi- 
dence of  theism  would  be  thereby  destroyed  or  even 
diminished. "f  He  inclines  to  think,  though  ridicul- 
ing the  doctrine,  that  cosmical  development  "may 
serve  rather  to  enhance"  the  "evidence  of  a  presid- 
ing Intelligence  and  a  supernatural  Power."  Of 
"physiological  development"  he  admits  that,  even 
were  it  established,  "it  would  not  destroy  the  evi- 
dence of  theism."  Dr.  M'Cosh  declares  "  there  is  noth- 
ing irreligious  in  the  idea  of  development,  properly 
understood ;":[:  and  Bishop  B.  S.  Foster§  frankly  con- 
fesses :  "  It  would  not  appall  our  faith  if  it  should  be 
discovered  that  all  the  forms  of  life  below  man  could 
be  traced  to  a  spontaneous  generation  from  the  unliv- 
ing monads,  and  that  from  unity  they  were  developed 
into  diversity,  given  that  the  spontaneous  movement, 
from  its  inception  to  its  ultimatum,  emanated  from 
and  was  guided  by  the  Divine  factor."     Similar  views 


*  See  further,  Mivart  on  the  Genesis  of  Species. 
t  Buchanan :  Modern  Atheism,  pp.  56,  68. 
X  ISI'Cosh  :  Christianity  and  Positivism,  p.  38. 
§  Foster :   Origin  of  Life,  in  Ingham  Lectures,  p.  47. 


BEARING  UPON   THEISM.  110 

are  entertained  by  many  ortbodox  theologians  of  the 
present  day. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  advocates  of  these 
theories  are  generally  willing  to  regard  themselves 
shut  out  from  the  fold  of  theistic  believers.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  be  content  "with  ignorance  of  a  man's  relig- 
ious faith  than  to  assign  him  a  creed  which  he  has  not 
avowed.  Whatever  be  the  views  of  such  writers  as 
Vogt  and  Biichner  and  Ilaeckel,  Mr.  Darwin  sincerely 
believes  that  his  theory  ought  not  to  "  shock  the  relig- 
ious feelings  of  any  one ;"  and  he  speaks  of  life  "  hav- 
ing been  originally  breathed  by  the  Creator  into  a  few 
forms  or  only  one."*  Mr.  Wallace  traces  all  natural 
phenomena  to  will,  and  says:  "The  whole  universe 
is  not  merely  dependent  on,  but  actually  is,  the  will 
of  higher  intelligences,  or  of  one  Supreme  Intelli- 
gence."t  Professor  Owen:]:  says:  "A  purposive 
route  of  development  and  change,  of  correlation  and 
interdependence,  manifesting  intelligent  will,  is  as  de- 
terminable in  the  succession  of  races  as  in  the  devel- 
opment and  organization  of  the  individual.  Gener- 
ations do  not  vary  accidentally  in  any  and  every 
direction,  but  in  preordained,  definite,  and  correlated 


*  Darwin  :  Origin  of  Species,  p.  5G9,  Engl.  edit. 

t  Wallace  :  Natural  Selection,  p.  3G8. 

X  Owen  :  Anatomy  of  Vertebrates^  chap,  xl. 


120  EVOLUTION",  AND    ITS 

courses."  Professor  Huxley*  affirms  that  Darwinism 
does  not  affect  the  doctrine  of  "  final  causes,"  but 
leaves  it  precisely  where  it  stood  before.  lie,  how- 
ever, rejects  what  he  calls  the  gross  forms  of  tele- 
ology. Professor  Asa  Grayf  thinks  that,  "as  w^e 
contemplate  the  actual  direction  of  investigation  and 
speculation  in  the  physical  and  natural  sciences,  we 
dimly  apprehend  a  probable  sj-nthesis  of  these  diver- 
gent theories,  and  in  it  the  ground  for  a  strong  stand 
against  mere  naturalism."  And  again :  "  The  phi- 
losophy of  efficient  cause,  and  even  the  whole  argu- 
ment from  design,  would  stand,  upon  the  admission 
of  such  a  theory  of  derivation  "  [as  Darwin's],  "  pre- 
cisely where  they  stand  without  it."  Professor  Par- 
sonsij:  is  a  firm  theist.  Even  admitting  the  course  of 
events  to  be  worked  out  after  the  fashion  of  the  num- 
bers in  Babbage's  calculating  engine,  he  says:  "God 
never  leaves  his  machine,  for  if  he  did  it  would  in- 
stantly perish;  because  it  is  always  his  present  actu- 
ality which  gives  force  and  efficacy  to  the  laws  by 
which  he  works."  Professor  Lyman§  exclaims : 
"How  dead  the  science  which  puts  force  as  its  first 


*  Huxley :   Critiques  and  Addresses  (p.  272),  and  elsewhere. 
t  Gray :  Amer.  Jour.  Science  [2],  xxix.,  pp.  161, 179. 
X  Parsons  :  Amer.  Jour.  Science  [2],  xxx.,  p.  7. 
§  Lyman  :  Ainer.  Jour.  Science  [2],  xxix.,  p.  185. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  121 

cause!"  And  again:  "What  interest  does  a  true 
conception  of  the  ever-working  Creative  Intellect  give 
to  science  I  Tliis  correspondence  of  the  human  with 
the  divine  mind!"  Dr.  0.  W.  Ilolmes"''  says :  "What- 
ever part  may  be  assigned  to  the  physical  forces  in 
the  production  of  the  phenomena  of  life,  all  being  is 
not  the  less  one  perpetual  miracle,  in  which  the  in- 
finite Creator,  acting  through  what  we  call  secondary 
causes,  is  himself  the  moving  principle  of  the  uni- 
verse he  first  framed  and  never  ceases  to  sustain." 
Professor  Mivartf  assures  us  that  the  prevalence  of 
the  theory  of  evolution  "need  alarm  no  one,  for  it  is 
without  doubt  perfectly  consistent  with  the  strictest 
and  most  orthodox  Christian  theology."  We  would 
commend  to  careful  reading  Mr.  Mivart's  general 
treatment  of  the  whole  subject  in  his  "Genesis  of 
Species;"  as  also  the  sound  suggestions  of  Mr. 
Murphy  in  his  work  on  "Habit  and  Intelligence." 

We  summarize,  finally,  our  conclusions  from  this 
discussion : 

1.  The  historical  succession  of  events  in  the^:>//y5- 
ical  world  is  a  real  evolution,  wrought  out  by  energies 
which  we  designate  the  forces  of  matter. 

*  Holmes :  North  American  lievieiv,  July,  1857. 
t  Mivart:   Genesis  of  Species,  ^.  16. 

6 


122  EVOLUTIOiS'j  AND   ITS 

2.  The  historical  succession  of  events  in  the  or- 
ganic world  is  a  real  evolution  in  its  main  features; 
but  in  the  details  are  many  facts  of  a  strongly  dis- 
cordant character.  The  evolution  is  marked  by  the 
caprices  of  independent  will  rather  than  the  uniform- 
ity of  unintelligent  mechanism. 

3.  Admitting  the  evolution  to  be  real  and  com- 
plete, it  remains  to  discover  the  immediate  or  second- 
ary causes  of  the  succession  of  phenomena,  and  also 
the  ultimate  or  efficient  cause. 

4.  Of  causes  assigned,  those  which  appeal  to  the 
unlimited  variability  of  species  rest  upon  an  admitted 
hypothesis,  without  an  authentic  fact  to  sustain  it. 

5.  This  default  of  facts  impairs  the  claims  of  La- 
marckianism  and  Darwinism,  though  both  are  valid 
agencies  in  the  preservation  of  useful  structures  and 
the  conservation  of  the  normal  vigor  of  species. 

6.  Of  all  causes  assigned,  those  which  assume  a 
slow  variative  derivation  are  opposed  by  the  gaps  and 
recessions  in  the  geological  series  of  types. 

7.  The  only  hypothesis  which  shuns,  at  the  same 
time,  a  postulating  of  indefinite  variability  and  of 
derivation  by  insensible  gradations,  is  that  first  pro- 
pounded by  Parsons,  and  subsequently  by  Owen, 
Kolliker,  and  Mivart;  but  this  has  to  encounter  diffi- 
culties arising  from  broad  gaps  and  frequent  retro- 
gressions in  the  series. 


BEARING   UPON  THEISM.  123 

\ 
/ 

8.  There  exists  no  a  j^riori  ground  for  denying  that 
some  phase  of  the  doctrine  of  filiative  evolution  in 
the  organic  world  may  yet  become  fully  proven  and 
established,  or  that  even  the  work  of  creating  new 
forms  directly  from  inorganization  may  be  now  going 
on.  These  are  simply  questions  of  fact,  to  be  found 
out  by  searching. 

9.  Should  these  doctrines  become  proven,  even  in 
their  extreme  phases,  there  will  be  no  proof  of  the 
absence  of  immediate  divine  agency  from  any  of 
the  operations  of  life ;  and,  having  seen  organization 
emerge  from  inert  matter,  we  can  believe  more  easily 
than  before  that  "  God  made  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth."  In  any  issue  of  scientific  investigation  in  a 
new  development  of  truth.  Christian  Theism  has  noth- 
ing to  fear,  but  only  new  truth  to  gain ;  and  should 
entertain  a  gratitude  above  all  other  interests  for  being 
placed  in  possession  of  new,  solid  material  to  incor- 
porate into  its  system. 


0  '!.  '  :ll  library 


APPENDIX. 


BARRANDE  versus  DAEWIK 

As  M.  Barrande's  discussions  have  never,  so  far  as  the  writer 
knows,  been  brought  i^rominently  before  the  general  reader — 
scarcely  even  in  the  scientific  journals  —  we  append  a  con- 
densed reproduction,  intended  to  exhibit  the  spirit  of  his 
method  and  conclusions. 

Monsieur  Joachim  Barrande  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  of 
livino"  Gceoloerists.  Almost  a  lifetime  has  been  devoted  by  him 
to  the  study  of  the  Silurian  rocks  of  Bohemia,  and,  collater- 
ally, of  the  most  ancient  fossiliferous  deposits  of  all  other 
countries.  The  results  of  these  labors  are  embodied  in  three 
l^onderous  quarto  volumes,  and  a  large  number  of  pamphlets 
and  volumes  in  octavo.  The  richness  of  the  Bohemian  strata 
in  organic  remains  has  enabled  him  to  trace  out  the  life  of 
certain  extinct  types  with  an  astonishing  degree  of  minuteness 
and  detail.  The  type  of  trilobites,  for  instance,  extinct  for 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  has  been  elucidated  in  all  its 
stao-es,  from  the  ecfff  and  the  minute  cmbrvo  to  the  adult  form. 
The  gradations  in  rank  and  succession  in  time  of  the  various 
modifications  of  the  trilobitic  type  have  been  profoundly  dis- 
cussed and  permanently  established,  in  the  i)r(>grcss  of  tlic 
marvelous  labors  of  this  learned  paleontologist.  It  results 
that  his  discussion  of  trilobites,  though  ])ut  incidental  to  his 
main  work,  is  recognized  as  the  most  authoritative  monograph 
of  this  zoological  type.     In  the  field  of  geological  science 


126  APPENDIX. 

there  is  no  name  more  familiar  or  more  resj)ecte(l  than  that  of 
M.  Joachim  Barrande. 

M.  Barrande  is,  therefore,  a  competent  authority  to  testify  in 
reference  to  the  bearing  of  paleontological  facts  upon  the  doc- 
trines of  evolution.  He  has  not  omitted  to  turn  his  attention 
to  this  inquiry ;  and,  in  the  suj^plement  to  the  first  volume  of 
the  Systeme  Silurien  du  centre  cle  la  Bohhne^  he  has  embodied 
an  essay,  entitled  "  Epreuve  des  theories  i^al^ontologiques  par 
la  r^alit^,"  which  abounds  in  facts  and  reasonings  of  the  ut- 
most interest  and  imi^ortance.  The  following  synopsis  of  this 
discussion  is  intended  for  the  benefit  of  intelligent  readers  lit- 
tle versed  in  paleontological  science. 

It  is  necessary  to  premise  that  M.  Barrande  finds  the  oldest 
fossiliferous  strata  of  Bohemia  to  lie  at  the  base  of  the  Silurian 
svstem.     The  assemblage  of  fossils  in  the  lowest,  or  ''  Primor- 

</  CD  1 

dial  Zone,"  of  these  strata  constitutes  his  "  Primordial  Fauna," 
above  which  succeed  his  "  second  "  and  "  third  "  faunas.  In 
America  the  lowest  zone  of  Silurian  rocks  is  the  "  St.  John's 
Group,"  which  contains  types  establishing  its  synchronism 
with  the  "  first  phase  "  of  the  Primordial  Zone ;  while  the  over- 
lying "Potsdam  Sandstone"  is  synchronized  with  the  "sec- 
ond phase."  Underneath  the  St.  John's  Group,  in  America,  is 
a  great  series  of  crystalline  schists,  now  commonly  designated 
"  Eozoic  "  or  "Archean."  Bv  Sir  "William  Logan  these  were 
divided  into  two  systems.  The  "  Huronian,"  above,  was  found 
by  Murray  to  be  about  18,000  feet  in  thickness,  while  the  "  Lau- 

*  The  discussion  here  referred  to  is  republished  in  octavo  form 
(282  pp.,  1871)  for  more  general  circulation.  For  a  copy  of  this  (as 
well  as  many  other  documents)  the  writer  is  indebted  to  the  distin- 
guished author.  The  title  of  this  octavo  brochure  is  "Trilobites." 
To  this  our  references  will  be  made.  Further  discussions  by  M.  Bar- 
rande maybe  seen  in  an  earlier  publication,  entitled  i>is^ri&2(^io?i  (?es 
(Jeplialopodcs  (1870),  and  a  later  one,  entitled  Cruataces  divers  ei  Foissoiis 
des  depots  Sihcrien  dc  la  Bvhhne  (1872). 


APPENDIX.  127 

reiitian,"  below, witli  its  "upper"  and  "lower"  members,  was 
estimated  by  Logan  to  reach  a  thickness  of  30,000  leet.  It  is 
in  the  Lower  Laurentian  that  occurs  the  problematical  struc- 
ture named  Eozoiiii  canadense^  on  the  hypotliesis  of  its  animal 
origin. 

The  indispensable  criterion  of  every  real  law  of  nature  is 
its  exact  conformity  to  established  facts.  This  is  well  illus- 
trated in  the  accepted  theories  of  physics  and  astronomy. 
Now,  admitting  the  animal  nature  of  Eozoon^  lyi"g  near  the 
bottom  of  the  Laurentian  system,  the  theoretical  laws  of  filia- 
tion and  transformation,  which  have  been  assumed  to  regulate 
the  evolution  of  the  zoological  series,  ought  to  enable  us  to  de- 
termine approximately  the  nature  and  the  relative  proportions 
of  the  development  of  the  princijDal  types  which  should  enter 
into  the  constitution  of  the  first  faunas,  and,  notably,  the  Pri- 
mordial Fauna  of  the  Silurian, 

It  is  clear  that  if  the  composition  of  this  Primordial  Fauna, 
thus  determined  a  2Jriori^  shows  itself  in  complete  discordance 
with  the  real  composition,  established  by  direct  observation, 
we  must  conclude  that  the  theoretical  laws  of  filiation  and 
transformation  are  destitute  of  all  foundation  in  nature,  or  else 
that  the  fact  which  serves  as  the  point  of  departure  of  the 
theories,  i.  e.^  the  animal  nature  attributed  to  Eozoun,  rests  in 
illusion.     Let  us  look,  then,  at  the  facts. 

I.  Composition  of  the  Pktmordial  Fattna  of  the  Silui^ian. 

A.   G cog rccpli iced  Distribution. 

The  Primordial  Fauna  of  the  Silurian  has  been  studied  in 
twelve  locally  distinct  regions  on  the  two  continents.  These 
may  be  grouped  as  the  "  Grand  Central  Zone  of  Europe  "  (em- 
bracing Bohemia  and  Spain),  and  the  "  Grand  Xortliern  Zone/' 
stretching  from  Europe  to  America — embracing,  on  the  former 
continent,  Scandinavia  and  England,  and,  on  the  hitter,  New- 
foundland, Canada  (including  Northern  VennontV  New  Bruns- 


128  APPENDIX. 

wick,  New  York,  Braintree  Olassachusetts),  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi region  (in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota),  Texas,  and  Geor- 
gia. This  fauna  contains  3G6  distinct  species  of  fossils,  only 
14  of  which  occur  in  more  than  one  of  the  twelve  regions. 
These  are  designated  "  migrant "  species.  There  is  no  sjjecies 
common  to  the  two  continents. 

Considering  the  specific  distinctness  of  these  forms  as  they 
appeared  simultaneously  in  the  diflerent  regions,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  conclude  that  those  regions  were  comparatively  iso- 
lated from  each  other  and  without  communication. 

It  is,  therefore,  difficult  to  conceive  how,  without  the  influ- 
ence of  a  sovereign  and  ordaining  cause,  animal  life,  develop- 
ing itself  in  isolated  situations  in  an  independent  manner,  and 
under  the  influence  of  very  diflerent  local  circumstances,  has, 
nevertheless,  manifested  itself  simultaneously  everywhere  upon 
the  tv*o  continents  under  forms,  if  not  identical,  at  least  so 
analogous  and  similar  that  science  can  not  refrain  from  asso- 
ciating them  under  the  same  generic  names,  as  ParadoxideSj 
Olenus,  Conocephalites,  Aguostus,  etc.     (Oj).  cit.,  p.  193). 

B.  Vertical  Distribution  and  Zoologuxd  Composition  of  tTie 
Primordial  Fauna  of  the  Silurian. 

1.  The  Primordial  Fauna  is  shai'ply  distinguished  into 
earlier  and  later  "phases,"'  according  as  the  trilobitic  genus 
Paradoxides  is  present  or  absent.  In  the  earlier  phase  it  is 
represented  by  33  species ;  in  the  latter  it  is  unknown.  Each 
phase  witnesses  the  presence  of  other  but  varying  trilobitic 
genera.  The  total  number  of  species  of  trilobites  in  the  earlier 
phase  is  168 ;  in  the  later,  85.  The  total  of  all  species  in  the 
first  is  241 ;  in  the  second,  127.  The  total  number  of  all  genera 
making  their  first  appearance  in  the  earlier  phase  is  46 ;  the 
total  for  the  later  phase  is  20.  This  excess  of  first  appear- 
ances characterizes  nearly  all  the  separate  orders  of  animals 
as  well  as  the  aggregate.     The  genera  of  trilobites  in  the  two 


APPENDIX.  129 

phases  are  18  and  10  ;  ostracods,  2  and  0  ;  annelids,  4  and  1 ; 
braeLiopods,  9  and  3 ;  bryozoa,  3  and  1 ;  cystideans,  6  and  0. 

This  considerable  number  of  primordial  genera,  especially 
in  the  earlier  phase,  ought  to  arrest  the  attention  of  those 
savans  who  imagine  that  generic  characters  are  derived,  like 
specitic  ditferences,  by  insensible  variations  long  accumulated. 
This  filiation  and  transformation  \vould  demand  innumerable 
generations  of  intermediate  forms  between  the  primitive  ideal 
tyj)e  and  the  66  tj'pes  of  diflferent  orders  which  co-existed  dur- 
ing the  primordial  epoch  of  the  Silurian.  But  to  this  day  the 
existence  of  these  forms  is  indicated  by  no  trace  whatever. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  conceive  why  all  the  intermediate 
forms  between  the  princijDal  types  should  have  invariably  dis- 
appeared. One  would  expect  to  encounter  the  descendants  of 
at  least  some  of  them  in  the  Primordial  Fauna.  But  among 
all  the  forms  from  the  lowest  horizons  of  life  upon  the  two 
continents,  it  would  be  difiicult  to  indicate  a  single  one  which 
could  be  considered  as  establishing  a  transition  between  two 
families  or  two  orders  co-existing  in  the  founa  under  consider- 
ation. It  seems,  then,  impossible  to  explain  the  existence  of 
so  many  types  so  well  characterized  and  so  distinct  at  that 
ej)och  by  the  sole  influence  of  filiation  and  transformation,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  supposed  primitive  being  (pp.  194-201). 

2.  The  analysis  of  the  Primordial  Fauna  shows  an  cxtraor- 
dinaiy  predominance  of  crustaceans,  and  especially  of  trilo- 
bites.  The  crustacean  genera  are  32  out  of  66 ;  the  crustacean 
species,  264  out  of  366.  These  crustaceans  were  the  highest  of 
all  the  classes  represented  in  the  Primordial  Fauna.  Their 
excess,  as  noted  above,  is  extremely  dificrent  from  the  propor- 
tions presented  in  any  later  peiiods.  It  would  be  difiicult  to 
assign  a  determinate  cause  of  this  predominance.  In  any 
event,  it  is  evidently  in  discordance  with  those  theories  wiiich 
teach  that  animal  life  has  been  gradually  developed,  starting 
from  the  lowest  forms  of  organization ;  since,  according  to  this 

6- 


130  APPENDIX. 

doctrine,  the  inferior  forms  ought  to  have  predominated  in 
numbers  in  the  most  ancient  faunas.  It  is  exactly  the  con- 
trary TN'hich  we  establish. 

The  importance  of  this  generalization  is  heightened  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  Cambrian  system — whether  synchronous  in  part 
wdth  the  Primordial  Zone,  or  older — there  has  not  been  dis- 
covered to  this  dav  a  single  trace  of  trilobites  or  other  crusta- 
ceans  playing  the  role  of  avant  coureurs.  Thus  the  first  ap- 
jDearance  of  so  numerous  trilobites  at  the  origin  of  the  Pri- 
mordial Fauna  offers  an  aspect  of  suddenness  in  disagreement 
with  the  theories  (pp.  204-206). 

3.  Besides  the  predominance  of  crustaceans  in  the  Primor- 
dial Fauna,  a  similar  predominance  is  noticed  in  the  numbers 
of  molluscs  compared  with  the  still  lower  classes.  In  the  first 
phase  the  sj)ecies  of  molluscs  are  to  those  of  the  lower  classes 
as  44  to  14;  in  the  second  phase,  as  34  to  5.  A  similar  though 
less  marked  predominance  appears  on  a  comparison  of  genera. 

When  we  thus  consider  that  the  relative  development  of 
trilobites  and  molluscs  underwent  a  gradual  diminution,  to 
give  place  to  lower  forms,  we  recognize  the  fact  that  it  pre- 
sents an  order  diametrically  opjjosed  to  that  which  ought  to 
be  observed  according  to  the  theories  (p.  20Tj. 

n.  Absence  of  Foramtnifera  and  Scarcity  of  Protozoa 

IN  General. 

Foraminifera  are  those  animals  of  extremely  simple  organi- 
zation to  which  belong  Eozoon  (as  supposed),  Amceba^  Niimmu- 
liteSj  and  similar  forms.  These  are  protozoans,  a  group  which 
also  embraces  sponges — horny  or  calcareous — together  with 
numerous  other  simple  forms  of  no  interest  here.  Foraminif- 
era are  supposed  to  have  been  represented  by  ^^^oo;?/  but,  so 
far  as  we  know,  its  existence  is  restricted  to  the  lower  portions 
of  the  Laurentian.  It  is  separated,  then,  from  the  Primordial 
Zone  by  the  Upper  Laurentian  and  the  Huronian.      It  at- 


APPENDIX.  131 

taincd  to  immense  size,  quite  unlike  any  Foraminifcra  known 
in  tlie  later  ages,  Now  this  gap  is  what  arrests  our  attention. 
No  Foraminifcra  are  known  from  the  Lower  Laurentian  until 
after  the  close  of  the  Primordial  Fauna.  Now,  the  theoretical 
law  of  filiation  aucl  transformation  teaches  us  that  Eozolin  ought 
to  have  been  rei)laced  by  one  or  many  other  types  of  the  same 
organization,  more  and  more  perfected,  but  gradually  dimin- 
ishing in  size  (p.  210).  Contrary  to  this,  other  protozoans  are 
wdioUy  unknown  until  we  reach  the  later  phase  of  the  Primor- 
dial Zone.  Hence  there  are  no  animal  forms  revealed  as  the 
possible  genealogical  successors  oi Eozoon.  This  is  something 
"worthy  to  arrest  attention.  If  there  ever  existed,  in  the  whole 
series  of  geologic  ages,  a  period  favorable  to  the  propagation 
of  an  animal  type,  it  is,  without  contradiction,  that  where  Eo- 
zoon reigned  alone  in  the  primitive  ocean,  exempt  from  that 
terrible  "struggle  for  existence"  which,  according  to  the  the- 
ory, must  have  successively  destroyed  the  most  powerful  fam- 
ilies of  the  zoological  series  during  the  later  ages  (p.  214). 

Thus  the  Foraminifcra,  the  immediate  descendants  of  Eo- 
eoon  by  filiation  and  transformation,  ought  to  have  propagated 
themselves  under  all  imaginable  forms  during  the  anteprimor- 
dial  era. 

Moreover,  the  innumerable  forms  of  this  liimily  which  have 
succeeded,  especially  during  the  Mesozoic,  Tertiary,  and  Qua- 
ternary ages — that  is  to  say,  during  the  ages  in  which  the 
"struscsle  for  existence"  must  have  been  the  most  terrible — 
demonstrate  to  us  sufficiently  the  powers  of  reproduction  and 
vital  resistance  wdiich  characterize  the  type  of  Foraminifcra. 

From  these  considerations,  we  ought  to  expect  to  find  the 
monuments  of  the  work  of  the  generations  of  this  family  pre- 
served, as  well  as  the  relics  of  trilobites  and  brachiopods,  in 
the  rocks  containing  the  Primordial  Fauna.  Thus  their  ab- 
sence from  these  rocks  constitutes  an  unexpected  and  inex- 
plicable discordance  between  the  theoretical  views  and  the 
paleontological  facts  thus  far  observed. 


132  APPENDIX. 

III.  Absence  of  Polyps  in  the  PRnroRDiAL  Fauna. 

Polyps,  or  coral-builders,  are  the  lowest  class  of  radiates,  a 
sub-kingdom  next  in  rank  above  protozoans,  and  lower  in 
rank  than  molluscs  or  articulates.  A  j^atient  inspection  of 
the  geological  records  of  all  the  countries  of  the  Primordial 
Fauna  fails  to  reveal  the  existence  of  a  single  species  of  the 
class  of  polyps. 

Eozooti  seems  singularly  related  to  polyps  in  some  of  the 
elements  of  its  structure ;  but  the  approximation  seems  even 
more  marked  by  the  vocation  which  it  was  appointed  to  fill 
in  the  primitive  ocean.  It  is  regarded  as  the  chief  agent  in 
the  secretion  of  enonnous  calcareous  masses  from  the  waters 
of  the  Laurentian  sea.  If  this  conclusion  be  correct,  it  must 
have  fulfilled,  during  the  Laurentian  ages,  exactly  the  same 
functions  as  polyps  have  accomplished  during  all  the  later 
ages,  and  which  they  are  still  accomplishing  before  our  eyes. 

In  accordance  with  this  double  affinity  in  their  zoological 
structure  and  in  their  geological  vocation,  one  would  feel  led 
to  assert  that  between  Eozoon  and  the  calcareous  polyps  there 
was  but  one  step  to  take  in  the  path  of  filiation  and  trans- 
formation. According  to  theoretical  ideas,  this  step  must  also 
have  been  the  first  one  taken  in  this  path.  In  fact,  the  prin- 
ciple of  natural  selection  does  not  permit  us  to  imagine  that 
the  great  primitive  agent  of  calcareous  secretions,  Eosoiin,  at 
one  time  in  possession  of  all  the  seas  of  the  globe,  could  have 
been  supplanted  and  eliminated  except  by  other  beings  better 
organized  for  fulfilling  the  same  functions — that  is  to  say,  by 
calcareous  poh^DS. 

Thus  these  polyps,  near  descendants  of  the  first  animal,  ac- 
cording to  the  natural  order  of  the  zoological  series,  should 
have  commenced  to  exist  during  the  anteprimordial  period; 
and  the  products  of  their  calcareous  secretions  should  be  found, 
mingled  in  the  same  rocks  M'ith  those  of  the  numerous  gener- 
ations of  the  family  of  Eozoon. 


APPENDIX.  133 

After  the  period  of  the  struggle  for  existence  {.^),  and  tlie  final 
elimination  of  the  primitive  t\pe,  the  polyps,  in  their  turn, 
should  have  reigned  supreme  over  the  bottom  of  the  ante- 
primordial  seas,  and  should  have  constructed  calcareous 
masses  at  least  equal  in  magnitude  to  the  Laurentian  masses, 
of  which  one  near  Grenville,  according  to  the  estimate  of  Sir 
AVilliam  Logan,  has  a  thickness  of  about  1500  feet. 

If  it  is  true,  as  the  same  authority  teaches  us,  that  the  ante- 
primordial  ages  comprised  an  interval  of  time  longer  than  that 
of  all  the  geological  ages  succeeding,  the  indestructible  monu- 
ments of  the  work  of  the  polyps  must  have  been  repeated  dur- 
ing the  antesilurian  era  at  least  as  many  times  as  we  see  the 
reefs  of  corals  reproduced  in  the  vertical  series  of  Paleozoic, 
Mesozoic,  and  Tertiary  formations. 

On  the  other  hand,  since  the  delicate  structure  of  the  tubu- 
lar walls  of  Eoziion  has  resisted  all  the  chemical  reactions  and 
all  the  crystalline  forces  since  the  most  remote  ages,  there  is 
no  reason  why  the  reefs  of  polyjDS  should  not  be  preserved  in 
rocks  of  later  origin,  and  especially  in  the  same  countr}-.  But 
in  spite  of  this,  and  in  spite  of  all  considerations,  no  trace  of 
polyps  has  yet  been  found  in  the  antesilurian  rocks  of  Canada 
or  any  other  country,  nor  even  in  the  Primordial  zone. 

This  fact  constitutes  a  strange  and  inexplicable  phenome- 
non when  we  consider  that  the  Primordial  Fauna  contains 
varied  types  both  inferior  and  sui)erior  to  polyps.  Of  the 
former,  we  cite  sponges ;  of  the  latter,  many  forms  belonging 
to  echinoderms,  bryozoans,  brachiopods,  gasteropods,  and 
pterojDods,  and  various  types  of  crustaceans,  principally  trilo- 
bites  (pp.  216,  217). 

This  total  absence  of  polyps  in  the  Primordial  Fauna  is  in 
complete  discordance  with  the  theories  which  teach  us  that 
animal  life  has  been  gradually  developed  from  forms  lowest 
in  respect  to  organization  (j).  228). 


134  APPENDIX. 

IV.  Absence  of  Acephals  and  Abundance  of 

Brachiopods. 

AcciDlials  (conchifers  or  lamellibraiichs)  are  a  class  of  mol- 
luscs generally  regarded  as  standing  next  above  brachiopods ; 
while  still  higher  stand  in  order  the  groups  of  gasteropods, 
heterojjods,  pteropods,  and  ccphalopods. 

While  ]>rachiopods  manifest  themselves  in  considerable 
numbers  in  the  Primordial  Fauna,  and  play  a  role  second  in 
importance  only  to  that  of  trilobites  in  all  the  countries,  we 
are  astonished  to  learn  that  nowhere  in  this  fauna  has  the 
least  trace  of  the  class  of  acephals  been  encoimtered.  This 
total  absence  to  this  day  seems  so  much  the  more  enigmatical, 
since  we  are  acquainted  with  representatives,  in  the  first  Si- 
lurian Fauna,  of  three  classes  of  molluscs  superior  to  acephals, 
viz.:  gasteropods,  heteropods,  and  pteropiods  (p.  229). 

The  first  forms  of  the  class  of  acephals  manifest  themselves 
toward  the  origin  of  the  "  Second  Fauna,"  that  is  to  say,  in  its 
first  or  second  phase,  on  the  two  continents. 

Since  all  zoological  classifications  agree  in  placing  the  ace- 
phals immediately  above  the  brachiopods"^  in  the  animal  series, 
it  is  very  difficult  to  conceive  why  brachioi^ods  have  so  much 

*  Professor  E.  S.  !Morse  very  ably  niahitaius  (see  Ftvceedings  Jhs- 
toil  Soc.  JWit.  Hiif.,  vol.  XV.,  pp.  315-372)  that  brachiopods  are  not 
molluscs,  but  belong  to  the  class  of  worms  among  articulates;  and 
hence  could  not  be  expected  to  sustain  direct  genetic  relations  with 
the  acephals.  He  supposes  ancient  chsetopod  worms  to  have  cul- 
minated in  two  parallel  lines  —  brachiopods  and  modern  chsetopods, 
as  Serpula,  AmjJhitnie,  etc.  (loc.  cit.,  369).  If  articulates  are  properly 
ranked  above  molluscs,  the  brachiopods  are  thus  removed  to  a  great- 
er distance  above  acephals  than  pteropods  and  heteropods  are ;  and 
the  anomaly  of  their  early  appearance  is  more  glaring  than  in  the 
case  of  these  molluscan  types.  In  this  case,  however,  it  will  be  re- 
membered theory  does  not  assign  them  to  the  same  genealogical 
line,  but  to  different  lines  which  converge  somewhere  in  the  past. 


APPENDIX.  135 

preceded  acalcphs  in  existence.  Tlie  difference  between  the 
eiDoclis  of  appearance  of  tliesc  two  closely  related  classes 
exceeds  the  whole  duration  of  the  Primordial  Fauna,  since 
brachiopods  have  existed  to  the  nunil)er  of  28  species  in  the 
first  phases  of  this  fauna,  after  having  made  their  first  ap- 
pearance in  the  Cambrian  age.  Since,  moreover,  the  class- 
es of  pteroj)ods  and  gasteropods,  sui)erior  in  their  organiza- 
tion, existed  during  the  first  Silurian  periods,  the  absence  of 
acalcphs  during  the  whole  Primordial  Fauna  constitutes  a 
grave  anomaly  and  an  interversion  of  the  supposed  order,  that 
is  to  say,  an  inexplicable  discordance  between  theoretic  pre- 
visions and  the  reality  (p.  333). 

Y.  Absekce  of  Heteropods. 

Only  a  single  species  of  this  type  of  molluscs  is  known  with- 
in the  Primordial  Zone,  and  that  only  in  England,  and  near 
the  close  of  the  period.  On  the  contrary,  pteropods  are  known 
in  considerable  abundance  in  the  lowest  beds  of  the  Primor- 
dial Zone.  The  first  advent  of  pteropods  antedates,  there- 
fore, the  first  advent  of  heteropods  —  a  lower  type  —  by  the 
Mliole  duration  of  the  Primordial  Fauna.  Here,  consequent- 
ly, is  another  inversion  of  the  order  of  gradual  development 
supposed  by  the  theories  (p.  235). 

It  is  well  also  to  remark  that  the  gasteropods,  placed  im- 
mediately heloiD  the  heteropods  in  the  zoological  scale,  ap- 
peared sporadically  in  the  first  phase  of  the  Primordial  Fauna 
in  Spain  and  in  America.  These  facts  set  forth  still  more  con- 
spicuously the  irregularity  of  the  absence  of  heteropods,  while 
the  two  classes  between  which  they  are  placed  among  mol- 
luscs are  re]n-esented  from  the  time  of  the  first  phases  of  the 
Primordial  Fauna  (p.  235). 

YT.  AnSENCE    OF    CEPnALOPODS. 

The  absence  of  this  (highest)  class  of  molluscs  from  the  Pri- 


186  APPENDIX. 

mordial  Fauna  has  been  fully  established  by  the  study  of  the 
primordial  fossils  of  all  countries  {Distrib.  des  Cejjhalojwdes, 
pp.  106-108).  This  fact,  so  important  in  the  study  of  the  ev- 
okition  of  life,  is  accompanied  by  another  fact  which  is  also 
worthy  of  attention.  It  is  that  toward  the  origin  of  the 
Second  Fauna  representatives  of  the  class  of  cephalopods  ap- 
peared simultaneously  in  almost  all  the  Silurian  countries 
under  a  great  number  of  generic  types  and  speciuc  forms. 
About  165  species  are  known,  representing  12  genera. 

This  simultaneous  development  of  so  many  different  forms 
upon  the  first  horizons  of  the  Second  Fauna  Mhich  present  ceph- 
pJoiDods  is  irreconcilable  with  the  theoretical  laws  of  filiation 
and  transformation  by  insensible  variations.  In  foct,  accord- 
ing to  these  laws,  such  a  develoi^ment  would  demand  an  ante- 
cedent and  i^rolonged  existence  of  this  class.  Thus,  the  ab- 
sence of  cephalopods  in  the  Primordial  Fauna  ought  to  be 
considered  as  establishing  a  discordance  between  the  theories 
and  the  reality  (p.  236). 

VII.  Discordances  in  the  Devolopment  of  Trilobites. 
A.  Predominance  of  Trilohites  in  the  Primordicd  Fauna. 

This  predominance  is  manifested  in  all  their  relations : 

1.  In  respect  to  the  number  of  genera.  We  know  28  genera 
of  trilobites  in  the  Primordial  Fauna,  besides  4  other  crus- 
tacean genera.  Of  molluscan  tyjDcs  we  find  1  genus  each  of 
pteropods,  heteropods,  and  gasteropods,  and  9  genera  of  brach- 
iopods.  The  still  lower  types  are  represented  severally  by  only 
1  or  2  genera. 

2.  In  resjDect  to  the  number  of  species.  Of  the  306  species 
known  in  the  Primordial  Fauna,  252  (69  per  cent.)  are  trilo- 
bites, and  72  per  cent*  are  crustaceans.  Considering  the  ear- 
lier phase  by  itself,  three-fourths  of  all  the  fossils  are  crusta- 
ceans. 

8.  In  respect  to  the  frequency  of  individuals.     Every  col- 


APPENDIX.  137 

lector  knows  that  the  fragments  of  trilobites  are  innumerable, 
wliile  the  traces  of  other  fossils  are  rare.  In  Bohemia  tli3 
frequency  of  trilobites  is  at  least  a  hundred-fold  that  of  all 
other  fossil  forms. 

4.  In  respect  to  size.  Pamdoxides,  characterizing  the  first 
phase  of  the  Primordial,  attains  almost  the  largest  size  known 
among  trilobites,  being  28  to  30  centimetres  [11  to  11 2-  inches] 
in  length.  Only  two  larger  species  are  known,  and  these  at- 
tain to  35  and  40  centimetres  [13|  to  15^  inches].  Among 
other  fossils,  the  largest  in  the  Primordial  is  but  9  to  10  centi- 
metres [31  to  4  inches]  in  length ;  and  most  of  them  arc  decid- 
edly diminutive. 

5,  In  respect  to  horizontal  diffusion.  In  every  country 
wdiere  the  Primordial  Fauna  is  known,  trilobites  invariably 
constitute  the  major  part.  They  are  ordinarily  accompanied 
by  a  few  representatives  of  other  types,  but  these  are  different 
in  the  different  countries. 

Thus  trilobites  dominate  not  only  over  each  of  the  other 
types  of  the  Primordial,  but  over  their  aggregate.  This  is 
true,  however  we  compare  them.  We  must  add  to  this  that, 
in  respect  to  the  degree  of  their  organization,  they  occupy  the 
first  rank  among  all  the  animals  of  this  fauna.  We  are  led  to 
recoo-nize  here  a  grave  discordance  between  the  actual  evolu- 
tion  of  this  tribe  and  that  which  would  be  assigned  to  it  by 
the  theories. 

In  fact,  according  to  the  law  of  filiation  and  gradual  trans- 
formations, the  evolution  of  the  animal  series  having  begun 
with  the  lowest  type,  and  being  compelled  to  produce  types 
successively  higher  and  higher,  it  follows  that  the  most  per- 
fect type  in  the  Primordial  Fauna — that  is,  the  type  of  crus- 
taceans or  of  trilobites — must  have  been  the  last  one  to  appear 
in  the  anteprimordial  era ;  and  consequently  it  must  have  pre- 
sented in  the  Primordial  Fauna  but  a  minimum  of  develop- 
ment in  comparison  with  the  other  types  which  must  have 


138  APPENDIX. 

preceded  it  in  existence  and  enjoyed  long  ages  for  their  de- 
velopment. But  it  is  precisely  the  contrary  which  we  estab- 
lish by  ajopeal  to  facts.  These  facts  are,  then,  in  complete  con- 
tradiction with  the  theories. 

B.  Conformation  of  the  Tliorax  in  Trilolites  of  tlie  Primordial. 

According  to  one  of  the  theoretical  conceptions,  each  animal 
should  reproduce,  in  its  embryonic  evolution,  or  in  its  meta- 
morphoses, the  chronological  series  of  forms  of  its  ancestors, 
from  which  it  has  descended  by  filiation  and  transformation. 
Consequently  the  metamorphoses  of  the  most  ancient  trilobites 
characterizing  the  first  phase  of  the  Primordial  Fauna,  such 
as  Sao^  Arionellus,  Agnostus,  etc.,  should  represent  the  successive 
forms  of  their  unknown  ancestors. 

But  these  trilobites,  like  all  those  with  whose  metamorpho- 
ses we  are  acquainted,  present  us  in  their  embryonic  develop- 
jnent  a  series  of  forms,  of  which  each  ofiers  one  thoracic  see:- 
ment  more  than  the  preceding,  beginning  with  zero.  We 
should  thence  conclude  that  the  first  antejDrimordial  trilobites,^ 
if  they  existed,  appeared  with  the  thorax  wanting,  and  that 
the  number  of  their  segments,  beginning  with  unity,  gradually 
increased  in  their  successive  transformations.  Agnostus,  whose 
thorax,  at  maturity,  consists  of  2  segments,  and  Microdiscus^ 
which  has  4,  should  represent  in  the  Primordial  Fauna  2  of 
the  most  ancient  combinations,  according  to  theorv. 

But  it  must  be  observed  that  these  two  trilobites  are  the 
only  ones  thus  conformed  in  the  Primordial  Fauna.  On  the 
contraiT,  nearly  all  the  other  types  of  this  fauna,  and  chiefly 
those  which  characterize  its  first  phases,  are  distinguished  by 
the  great  number  of  their  thoracic  segments.  This  number 
is  almost  constantly  above  the  mean  figure  11,  and  in  Para- 
doxidcs  it  attains  the  figure  20,  which  is  very  near  the  maxi- 
mum, 26,  known  in  all  the  tribe. 

Thus  one  would  be  led  to  think,  according  to  the  theories, 


APPENDIX.  139 

that  all  the  primitive  tiilobitcs  possessing  from  5  to  9  thoracic 
segments  must  have  existed  in  the  Auteiorimordial  Faunas, 
and  that  they  must  have  disappeared,  according  to  the  order 
of  animal  evolution,  before  the  epoch  of  the  first  Silurian 
Fauna,  never  to  re-appear. 

Our  astonishment  should  be  greatly  excited,  therefore,  at 
seeing  these  types  appearing  in  great  numbers  in  the  Second 
Fauna,  and  showing  themselves  simultaneously  in  all  Silurian 
regions  on  the  two  continents.  By  a  singular  privilege,  this 
fauna  is  the  only  one  in  which  these  tyjDcs  ijredomiuate  by  the 
number  of  their  species  and  the  frequency  of  their  individuals. 
It  suffices  to  cite  Asaphus^  Ogygia^  TrimicJeus,  etc.,  known  to  all 
savans.  These  genera  constitute,  by  their  presence,  the  princi- 
pal character  of  the  Second  Fauna,  as  Paradox  ides,  Olemis,  and 
ConocejjJialites  constitute  that  of  the  Primordial  Fauna. 

"We  know  in  the  Second  Fauna  19  types  whose  thorax  is 
composed  of  5  to  9  segments,  and  they  are  rej^resented  by  323 
species — the  total  number  of  genera  of  this  fauna  being  52, 
and  of  species,  866. 

On  the  contrary,  there  exists  in  the  Second  Fauna  no  trilo- 
bite  which  presents  a  number  of  thoracic  segments  equal  to 
that  oi  Avion  ell  us,  Sao,  Pamdoxides  characterizing  the  first  phase 
of  the  Primordial  Fauna. 

Thus,  from  the  theoretical  point  of  view,  avc  would  be  led 
to  assert  that  the  Primordial  and  Second  faunas  present  a  sort 
of  interversion  in  the  order  of  appearance  of  the  trilobitic 
types  which  constitute  their  chief  distinctive  characters  re- 
spectively (jDp.  240-242). 

YIII,  Absence  of  Intermediate  Forms. 

Eleven  family  types  are  known  in  the  Primordial  Fauna. 
These  are  as  trenchantly  diflerentiated  from  eaeli  other  as  the 
same  types  in  any  succeeding  age,  or  even  in  the  actual  fauna. 
For  example,  among  crustaceans  wc  have  trilobites,  phyllo- 


140  APPENDIX. 

pods,  and  ostracods.  But  between  a  trilobite,  like  Paradox- 
ides  (somewhat  lobster -like)  and  an  ostracod,  like  Prmitia^ 
a  little  bivalve  crustacean,  the  difference  of  conformation  is 
so  marked  that,  were  we  to  refer  them  to  any  common  ances- 
try, we  should  necessarily  conceive  of  a  multitude  of  interme- 
diate forms  which  must  have  existed  before  Paradoxides  and 
the  ostracods  co-existing  in  the  Primordial  Fauna.  Such  in- 
termediate forms  have  left  no  trace  of  themselves,  either  in 
the  rocks  which  inclose  the  Primordial  Fauna  or  in  those 
which  represent  the  anterior  ages.  Similar  observations  ap- 
ply to  the  contrasts  between  any  two  of  the  family  types  of 
the  Primordial. 

It  may  also  be  observed  that  such  observations  ajDply  equal- 
ly to  the  family  types  of  all  the  Paleozoic  ages.  The  forms 
intermediate  between  them  are  universally  wanting.  One  can 
not  conceive  why,  in  all  rocks  whatever,  and  in  all  countries 
upon  the  two  continents,  all  relics  of  the  intermediary  types 
should  have  vanished. 

This  disapi^earance  of  intemiediate  tj'pes  is  so  general  and 
so  constant  in  the  series  of  geologic  ages,  and  over  the  entire 
surface  of  the  explored  formations,  that  it  seems  impossible  to 
explain  it  except  by  regarding  it  as  the  effect  of  a  grand  law 
of  nature. 

The  absence  of  intermediate  types  characterizes  the  gaps 
between  genera  and  even  species,  as  well  as  between  orders 
and  families.  We  have,  fortunately,  a  single  striking  instance 
of  an  intermediate  form  in  the  genus  BoJieniilla^  which  unites 
the  characters  oi Paradoxides  and  Agnosius.  Bohemilla  ought, 
therefore,  to  occur,  according  to  theory,  among  trilobites  of 
the  Primordial  Fauna,  unless  its  existence  at  an  earlier  epoch 
should  have  been  established.  But,  by  a  sort  of  perversity 
which  nature  seems  to  show  toward  theories,  Bohemilla  does 
not  appear  in  the  Primordial  at  all,  but  only  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Second  Fauna,  after  the  extinction  of  Ag- 


APPENDIX.  1-41 

nostus,  and  a  whole  geologic  cycle  after  the  disappearance  of 
Pai^adoxides. 

Similar  anachronisms  are  established  in  the  succession  of 
cephalopods  {Dititrih.  des  CejjJiaJojy.^-p.iQij). 

IX.  Zoological  Composition  of  the  Cambrian  Fauna. 

Underneath  tlie  recognized  Silurian  rocks  of  England,  Bohe- 
mia, Norway,  and  Sweden  reposes  a  series  of  strata  containing 
a  limited  number  of  mostly  obscure  remains  of  animals  and 
plants.  They  are  characterized  by  the  relative  abundance  of 
l^lauts  and  traces  of  marine  worms.  One  polyj)  is  doubtfully 
recognized,  which  is  thus  seen  to  be  far  separated  from  its 
nearest  successor  in  time.  Three-fourths  of  all  the  genera  are 
known  in  the  Silurian,  and  five  species  even  range  into  the 
Silurian,  Under  the  circumstances,  it  seems  probable  that 
the  fossiliferous  f)ortions  of  these  so-called  Cambrian  strata 
should  be  annexed  to  the  Silurian. 

But,  admitting  their  real  anteriority,  we  have  to  remark  the 
imjDortant  fact  that  not  a  single  trilobite  has  been  discovered 
in  the  Cambrian  rocks,  although  in  many  cases  their  condition 
is  very  favorable  for  the  preservation  of  the  most  delicate  parts. 
We  are  still  left  profoundly  imjircssed  by  the  suddenness  of 
•the  appearance  of  trilobites  at  the  beginning  of  the  Silurian 
age.  This  phenomenon,  however,  is  repeated  in  the  case  of 
cephalopods,  near  the  origin  of  the  Second  Fauna,  and  again  in 
the  case  of  fishes,  near  the  close  of  the  Third  Fauna.  Indeed, 
similar  examples  are  repeated  through  all  the  geologic  ages. 

All  these  sudden  manifestations  of  life  under  new  typical 
forms,  appearing  constantly  and  everywhere  with  the  plenitude 
of  their  distinctive  characters,  are  in  complete  discordance 
with  the  hypothesis  of  a  gradual  development  l)y  insensible 
and  successive  variations,  since  such  a  transformation  could 
only  be  w^'ought  out  through  an  indefinite  scries  of  interme- 
diate forms,  of  which  no  trace  has  been  found  in  any  country 
(pp.  246-267). 


142  APPENDIX. 

X.  Comparative  Resume  contrasting  Facts  with 

Theory. 

Sucli  a  comparison  is  best  set  fortli  by  a  diagrammatic  ar- 
rangement shown  on  the  opjDosite  page,  which  we  reproduce, 
and  leave  to  speak  for  itself.  The  first  column  gives  the 
names  of  the  zoological  groups,  arranged  in  the  order  of  rank. 
In  the  next  two  columns  the  actual  development  of  the  groups 
is  represented  by  the  relative  lengths  of  the  black  lines.  In 
the  fourth  column  the  development  of  the  groups  in  the  first 
phase  of  the  Primordial  Fauna  is  shown  as  it  should  be,  ac- 
cording to  theories  of  evolution,  while  the  fourth  column  shows 
it  as  it  is.  In  the  last  column  are  given  the  totals  of  species 
known  in  the  first  phases  of  the  Primordial  Fauna  of  the 
Silurian. 

XI.  Conclusions  from  the  preceding  Studies. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  discussion  we  alluded  to  the  won- 
derful confirmation  of  certain  astronomical  previsions  by  the 
facts  of  observation.  The  theories,  then,  on  which  such  pre- 
visions are  based  must  be  in  harmony  with  the  reality. 

By  contrast,  we  have  now  established,  as  the  final  result  of 
our  studies,  that  direct  observation  contradicts  radically  all 
previsions  of  jjaleontological  theories  on  the  subject  of  the 
comiDOsition  of  the  first  phases  of  the  Primordial  Fauna  of  the 
Silurian. 

In  fact,  the  special  study  of  each  of  the  zoological  elements 
which  constitute  these  phases  has  demonstrated  to  us  that 
the  theoretic  previsions  are  in  complete  discordance  with  the 
facts  observed  by  paleontology.  These  discordances  are  so 
numerous  and  so  pronounced,  that  the  composition  of  the  real 
fauna  seems  to  have  been  calculated  by  design  for  contradict- 
ing every  thing  which  the  theories  teach  us  respecting  the 
first  appearance  and  primitive  evolution  of  the  forms  of  ani- 
mal life  upon  the  earth. 


APPENDIX. 


143 


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Ui  APPENDIX. 

These  results,  moreover,  are  in  perfect  harmony  with  those 
heretofore  deduced  from  studies  on  the  first  appearance  and 
the  distribution  of  cephalopods  in  the  Silurian  countries. 

It  remains  to  learn  whether  the  discordances  demonstrated 
ought  to  be  imputed  solely  to  the  essential  principle  of  the 
theories  of  filiation  and  transformation,  or  proceed  in  any  part 
from  then-  point  of  departure  in  paleontology,  that  is,  from 
the  supposed  animal  nature  of  Eozoon.  This  is  a  question 
whose  solution  we  leave  to  those  interested. 

For  us,  we  persist  in  thinking  that  science  ought  to  main- 
tain itself  strictly  within  the  sphere  of  observed  facts,  and  rest 
completely  independent  of  every  theory  which  would  tend  to 
tempt  it  into  the  sj)here  of  the  imagination. 


INDEX. 


AmOGENESIS,  101. 

Acceleration  iu  embryouic  develop- 
ment, 43. 
Acephals  wanting  in  Primordial,  131. 
Agassiz  on  specific  derivation,  44. 
Agnostus,  66, 13S,  140. 
Analysis  of  the  Essaj',  11. 
Ancient  opinions,  116. 
Anticipation  of  environment,  SI,  8G, 

Apes  in  relation  to  man,  G2. 

Aphides,  53. 

Appetency,  40. 

Archceojiteri/x,  35,  85. 

Archegenesis,  101. 

Archegenesis  viewed  as  creation,  116. 

Archetypes,  23. 

Archetypes,  correlation  to,  77-92. 

Ascidians,  63. 

Astronomical  facts,  19. 

Atheistic  admissions,  104. 

A  trypa  reticularis,  59. 

Barnakd's  admissions,  113. 
Barraude  on  paleontological  facts,  05, 

1-25. 
Barrande  versus  Darwin,  125. 
Bible,  how  vindicated,  114. 
Bohemilla,  140. 

Brachiopods  according  to  Morse,  134. 
Brachiopods  in  Primordial,  134. 
Breaks  in  the  chain  of  affinities,  62. 
Breaks  in  the  geological  series,  03. 
Buchanan  on  theism  of  evolution,  US. 
Burbauk  and  Perry  on  Eozoi'm,  05. 

Camrrian  fossils,  141. 
Causes,  efficient  and  conditioning,  90, 
97. 


Cephalopods  wanting  in  Primordial, 

135. 
Cercaria,  53. 

Chapman  on  Darwinism,  42. 
Christlich's  errors,  26. 
Co-existence,  facts  of,  IS,  2S. 
Conclusions,  121. 
Co7ioce2Jhali(es,  00, 139. 
Conspectus  of  development  theories, 

44. 
Cooling,  extensive  effects  of,  19-22. 
Cooling  of  terrestrial  matter,  24. 
Cope  on  derivation  of  species,  43,  51. 
Correlation  to  archetypes,  77. 
Correlation  of  physical  and  vital  forces, 

97. 
Creation  by  fdiation,  115. 
Credibility  of  filiativc  derivation,  115. 
Criterion  of  a  law  of  nature,  127. 
Cross-breeding,  31. 
Crustaceans  iu  relation  to  derivaliou, 

129. 
Cuvier  on  development,  39,  50. 

Dana  on  comprehensive  types,  35,  70. 

Darwinism,  30,  41,42,  47. 

Darwin  on  origin  of  species,  30. 

Darwin  on  theism  of  development,  119. 

Dawson's  severity,  112. 

Deinosauria  in  relation  to  develop- 
ment, OS. 

De  Maillet  on  transmutation,  37. 

Derivation  perhaps  a  mode  of  crea- 
tion, 115. 

Developmental  co-ordinations  imply 
intelligence,  110. 

Developmcntists  before  Darwin,  3S. 

Diagram  contrasting  facts  aud  theo- 
ries, 143. 


U6 


INDEX. 


Discordances  shown  by  trilobites,  136. 
Distribution  vertically  of  Primordial 

fossils,  128. 
Divine  agency  in  nature,  109. 
Domesticated  animals,  55. 

Efficient  and  conditioning  causes, 

96,  9T. 
Egyptian  mummies,  56. 
Elephant,  72. 

Embryo  of  man  branchiate,  87. 
Embryology  and  derivation,  29,  42,  45. 
Embryology  of  trilobites,  138. 
Embryonic  affinities,  29. 
Environment  of  animals  and  plants, 

30. 
Eozoon,  33,  64,  65, 127, 130, 132. 
Eozobn  related  to  polyps,  132. 
Equidce  in  relation  to  development, 

89. 
Evolution,  comparison  of  theories  of, 

48-51. 
Evolution,  definition  of,  15. 
Evolution,  doctrine  of  extended,  15, 

41. 
Evolution  in  the  organic  world,  27, 

110. 
Evolution  in  the  physical  world,  18-26, 

105. 
Evolution  of  ideas,  36. 

Facts  as  opposed  to  derivation,  53. 
Facts  of  co-existence,  18,  28. 
Facts  of  succession,  23,  32. 
Family  types  of  Primordial  fossils,  139. 
Ferris  on  derivation  of  species,  44,  53. 
Finitude  of  the  physical  series,  105. 
Fishes  historically  considered,  68. 
Foraminifera  wanting  in  Primordial, 

130. 
Forces  of  matter  are  what?  108. 
Foster  on  theism  of  evolution,  118. 
Functional  relations,  SO. 
Fundamental  types,  33. 

Gaps  in  the  chain  of  affinities,  62,  63, 

129, 139. 
Gaps  in  the  geological  record,  63, 129, 

131. 


Gar-pikes,  86. 

Gegeubaur  on  Darwinism,  41. 

Genetic  relationships  argued,  45. 

Geographical  distribution  of  Primor- 
dial fossils,  12S. 

Geological  facts  bearing  on  evolution, 
IS,  32,  59, 63. 

Geological  succession  of  types,  32. 

Germs  in  the  air,  102. 

Giraffe,  72. 

Gray  on  development,  40. 

Gray  on  theism  of  development,  120. 

IIakokel  on  Darwinism,  41,  48. 

Ileterogenesis,  101. 

Ileteropods  wanting  in   Primordial, 

135. 
Hijrparion,  90. 
Hrppothcriiim,  90. 
Holmes,  on  God  in  nature,  121. 
Homologies,  77,  78,  S3,  85,  87,  89,  90. 
Hooker  on  development,  40. 
Hooker  on  plant-distribution,  75. 
Horses,  American,  82,  89. 
Horses,  wild,  81. 

Humboldt  on  habits  of  monkeys,  74. 
Huxley  on  derivation  of  sjjecics,  40, 

55. 
Huxley  on  man  and  apes,  C2. 
Huxley  on  molecules,  96. 
H'lxley  on  final  causes,  120. 
Hyatt  on  origin  of  species,  42,  51. 
Hybridity,  32,  55. 

Ideal  concepts  in  organization,  79,  SO, 
S3,  87. 

Identical  forms  and  diverse  influ- 
ences, 82. 

Identical  influences  and  deficient  re- 
sults, 74. 

Identical  influences  and  various  re- 
sults, 76. 

Imperfection  of  the  geological  record, 
64. 

Incandescent  cosmical  vapor,  23. 

Incipient  organs,  73. 

Incongruities  of  natural  selection,  94. 

Instinct  and  intellect,  30. 

Intelligence  of  brutes  fixed,  58. 


INDEX. 


147 


Intellit^ent  plama  in  nature,  ST.  I  Os  coccygi?,  R5. 

Intolerance  of  changed  coudilions,  70.  Ostracods,  07, 140, 


Introduced  specie?,  82. 
Intuitions,  113. 

King  and  Kowney  on  Eozoon,  G5. 
Kollikcr  ou  development,  43,  53. 

LABYBINTnODONTS,  78,  88. 

Lamarckiauism,  38,  46, 100. 
Lamarck  ou  development,  38,  56. 
Lapide  ou  creation,  lit. 
Lepidosteidce,  87. 
Logan  on  Archean  strata,  126. 
Lyell  on  variability  of  species,  54. 
Lyman  ou  tlieism  in  science,  120. 

Max  in  relation  to  development,  40. 

Marsh  on  Siredon,  51. 

M'Cosh  ou  theism  of  evolution,  118. 

Metaphysical  objections,  02. 

Microdiscns,  138. 

Migrant  species,  66, 128. 

Migration  under  changed  conditions, 

70. 
Mind  and  struggle  for  existence,  95. 
Mivart  ou  derivation  of  species,  44, 

52. 
Mivart  ou  theism  in  development,  121. 
Molluscs  in  Primordial,  130. 
Monad  life,  102. 
Morse  ou  brachiopods,  134. 
Mummies  from  Egypt,  5G. 

Nattjual  selection  conservative,  100. 

Natural  selection  not  a  cause,  96. 

Nebular  theory,  23. 

Kecturus;  85,  86, 

Numbers  demanded  by  Darwinism,  98. 

Objections  distributed,  99. 

Objectious  to  derivative  theories,  53. 

Opinion  of  Moses  on  archegeuesis,  117. 

Opinions  of  ancients,  IIG,  117. 

Opinions  of  priests  of  Middle  Ages, 
117. 

Opinions,  recent,  ou  tlie'.sna  of  evolu- 
tion, lis. 

OroJnpjnis,  90. 


Owen  on  development,  43,  52. 

Owen  on  theism  of  development,  119. 

PAP.AnoxiPE8,  06,  69, 128, 137, 139, 140. 
Parallelism  of  genealogical  lines,  61. 
Parsons  ou  derivation  of  species,  43, 

52. 
Parthenogenesis  a  misnomer,  53. 
Phases  of  the  Primordial  fauna,  128. 
Physical  cause  a  definite  quantitj',  92. 
Physical  forces  act  in  cycles,  94. 
Physical  influences  antagonizing,  71. 
Physiological  forces  and  development, 

71. 
Planets,  conditions  of,  20. 
Plants,  distribution  of,  75. 
Polyps  wanting  in  Primordial,  132. 
Porpoise,  79,  80,  82. 
Primitia,  67, 140. 
Primordial  causation,  107. 
Primordial  fauna,  120, 127. 
Primordial  state  of  matter,  23. 
Primordial  zone,  C6, 126. 
Prolonged    embryonic    development, 

42. 
Proto1dpx>us,  90. 

Protozoa  rare  in  Primordial,  130. 
Pterodactyl,  77. 
Pteropods  in  Primordial,  135. 

Rf.abon  an  admissible  authority,  107. 

Reconciliation  between  scieuce  and 
religion,  109. 

Reptiles  in  relation  to  development, 
68. 

Retardation  of  embryonic  develop- 
ment, 51. 

Retrogression,  SO,  138, 

Reversal  of  graduated  order,  08. 

Rudimentary  organs,  84-87. 

SoiF.NTiFic  truths  not  to  be  gainsaid, 

112. 
Self-existence  demanded,  106, 107, 
Silurian  fossils,  04, 125, 
Simplest  types  still  survive,  70. 
Siredon  lichenoidci^,  51. 


14.8 


INDEX. 


Spencer  on  evolution,  15. 

Spiritual  concepts  and  the  struggle  for 

existence,  95. 
Splint  bones  in  the  horse,  S9. 
Spontaneous  generation,  101. 
Spore,  tenacity  of  life  of,  103. 
Spores  in  the  air,  102. 
Stars,  conditions  of,  21. 
St.  Aquinas  on  creation,  IIT. 
St.  Augustine  on  creation,  117. 
St.  Hilaire  on  development,  S9. 
Stone  Age,  Relics  of,  5S. 
Strophomeiia  rhomboidalis,  60. 
Structural  relationships,  33. 
Struggle  for  existence,  39, 131. 
Succession,  facts  of,  23,  32. 
Suddenness  of  acquisition,  91. 
Superphysical  force  indicated,  T3,  SI. 

Tadpole,  SI,  86. 

Theism  and  derivation,  105. 

Theism  and  spontaneous  generation, 
116. 

Theistic  bearings  of  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution, 104. 

Theology  beyond  the  reach  of  phys- 
ical science,  104, 107. 

Theories  of  development,  30. 

Theories  of  development,  conspectus 
of,  44. 


Theory,  nebular,  23. 

Thorax  of  trilobites,  133, 

Trilobites  in  relation  to  development, 

CO,  67,  69, 128, 136. 
Trilobites,  predominance  of,  130. 
Types  and  archetypes,  28. 
Types,  comprehensive,  35,  88. 
Types,  fundamental,  33. 
Tj'pes,  generic,  unchanged,  61. 
Types,  prophetic,  34,  88. 
Types,  retrospective,  35. 
Types,  synthetic,  SS. 

Unity  independent  of  can?e  of  evoln- 

tion,  111. 
Unity  of  cosmical  phenomena,  19-22. 
Unity  of  geological  phenomena,  19. 

Vahiability  of  species,  31,  54-01. 
Varying  action  of  organic  forces,  93. 
"Vestiges  of  Creation"  on  develop- 
ment, 42. 
Vital  forces,  97, 103. 

Wallace  on  derivation  of  species,  39. 

Wallace  on  theism  of  development, 
119. 

Wheeled  vehicles  homologically  con- 
sidered, 90. 

Will,  the  only  ultimate  cause,  lOS. 


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